Kempt
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Neat and tidy; especially used of hair. humorous, usually
"For a moment Boshy thought his senses were playing up with him, for there in the door entrance stood the identical girl - the same turkey-egg complexion, stubby nose, and her red hair only changed from unkempt to kempt."
- 1 (of hair) neat and tidy wordnet
Example
More examples"For a moment Boshy thought his senses were playing up with him, for there in the door entrance stood the identical girl - the same turkey-egg complexion, stubby nose, and her red hair only changed from unkempt to kempt."
Etymology
Originally a past participle of kemb, from Middle English kemben, from Old English cemban (“to comb”). Modern uses are back-formations from the negative unkempt. More at kemb, comb.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.