Also 7 kenn(e. [f. KEN v.1]
† 1. = KENNING vbl. sb.1 4 b. Obs.
1545. St. Papers Hen. VIII., I. 815. The place, wher we be at this present, ys thwartt of Shorham, too kennys allmoste frome the shore.
1574. W. Bourne, Regiment for Sea, xviii. (1577), 48 b. Neyther is it possible to see any lande further … wherefore 6. leagues or 9. leagues is called a ken.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 250. Lette this suffice, that they are safely come within a ken of Douer.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., III. vi. 6. Milford, When from the Mountaine top, Pisanio shew’d thee, Thou was’t within a kenne.
1625. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. vii. (1635), 121. The Fisher-man iudging by sight, could not see about a kenne at sea.
2. Range of sight or vision; in phrases in or within ken, beyond, out of, or past ken. Now rare.
1590. Greene, Orl. Fur., I. Wks. (Rtldg.), 90. The bordering islands, seated here in ken.
1594. Nashe, Unfort. Trav., 85. Out of ken we were ere the Countesse came from the feast.
1624. Massinger, Bondman, IV. i. The conquering army Is within ken.
1691. Ray, Creation, I. (1692), 4. Beyond all Ken by the best Telescopes.
1725. Pope, Odyss., V. 456. Scarce in ken appears that distant isle.
1882. F. Myers, Renewal of Youth, 77. Thro’ space, if space it be, past count or ken.
b. With possessive or equivalent.
1630. Drayton, Noah’s Flood, Wks. 1551 (R.). On which they might discern within their ken, The carcasses of birds, of beasts, and men.
a. 1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., IV. viii. 365. The Intellect … taketh a flight out of the ken or reach of Sense.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, III. 15. The eye Is bounded in its ken to a stone’s cast.
1864. W. H. Ainsworth, John Law, V. x. (1881), 283. Many remarkable personages came under Evelyn’s ken.
† 3. Sight or view of a thing, place, etc.; possibility or capacity of seeing; chiefly in phrases in, within, out of ken of. Obs.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., clx. (1594), H iij b. Tis double death to drowne in ken of shore.
1634. Massinger, Very Woman, V. v. Hardly We had lost the ken of Sicily, but we were Becalm’d.
1691. Ray, Creation, I. (1692), 86. Scarce daring to venture out of the Ken of Land.
1745. De Foe’s Eng. Tradesman (1841), I. viii. 64. I sent out my servant to watch … these … strollers, and keep … within ken of them.
4. Power or exercise of vision; look, gaze.
1666. Dryden, Ann. Mirab., cxi. Each ambitiously would claim the ken That with first eyes did distant safety meet.
1736. W. Thompson, Nativity, xi. Faith led the van,… Steady her ken, and gaining on the skies.
1814. Cary, Dante’s Inf., IV. 4. I … search’d, With fixed ken, to know what place it was Wherein I stood.
b. Mental perception or recognition.
c. 1560. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), xxxv. 28. Every gait of wicket stait Sall perreiss owt of ken.
1701. Rowe, Amb. Step-Moth., III. iii. 1340. Whose Orb, with streaming Glories fraught, Dazles the Ken of human thought.
1836–7. Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph., xviii. (1870), 361. Acts of mind so rapid and minute as to elude the ken of consciousness.
1871. W. Alexander, Johnny Gibb, xlii. (1892), 235. My vera memorandum book blottit oot’ o’ ken.
