Forms: 4–6 kenel, 5 -elle, 5–6 -ell, (6 cannel), 6–7 kennell, 6– kennel. [app. a. ONF. *kenil = F. chenil (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.):—popular L. canīle (in Wr.-Wülcker, 198/29), f. canis dog, with suffix as in ovīle sheepfold. Sense 2 may be partly due to OF. kienaille, chienaille (= mod.F. canaille) pack of dogs (Godef.).]
1. A house or cot for the shelter of a house-dog; a house or range of buildings in which a pack of hounds or sporting dogs are kept.
13[?]. [see kennel-door in 3].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 271/2. Kenel for howndys,… canicularium.
1576. Turberv., Venerie, 27. In the highest place of the Courte it shall be good to buylde the kennell or lodging for the Houndes.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., IV. iv. 47. From forth the kennell of thy wombe hath crept A Hell-hound that doth hunt vs all to death.
1642. R. Carpenter, Experience, II. xi. 215–6. The Curre taken out of the Kennell, and provoked to barke.
1735. Somerville, Chase, I. 124. First let the Kennel be the Huntsman’s Care.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, III. i. 16. ‘But if all the other dogs are in their kennels—’
b. The hole or lair of the fox.
1735. Somerville, Chase, III. 54. While from his Kennel sneaks The conscious Villain.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., II. 190. The instant he perceives himself pursued, he makes to his kennel.
c. Contemptuously applied to a small and mean dwelling or hut.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xlv. He got us a room—we were in a kennel before.
1887. Rider Haggard, Jess, xxxi. Jess … never entered the Hottentot’s kennel.
d. A woman’s head-dress, of a shape suggesting a kennel.
See Fairholt’s Hist. Costume (1885), I. 226, and cf. quot. for kennel-shaped in 3.
1896. Gloucestersh. N. & Q., No. 72. 138. On their heads they wear the kennel or angular head dress so generally worn during the latter part of the reign of Henry VII.
e. fig. Place to occupy.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxxix. (1856), 355. The last-named came on board last, and found, though he is not a very large man, a sufficiently narrow kennel between the companion-ladder and the dinner-table.
2. A pack of hounds, or of dogs of any kind.
c. 1470. in Hors Shepe & G., etc. (Caxton 1479, Roxb. repr.), 31. A brace of houndes, a kenel of recches.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (1531), 49. A kenel of houndes folowynge theyr game.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., IV. ii. 47. A little Heard of Englands timorous Deere, Maz’d with a yelping kennell of French Curres.
1781. W. Blane, Ess. Hunting (1788), 62. It is hard to procure an even kennel of fast Hounds.
1826. Scott, Woodst., iv. Hurt a dog, and the whole kennel will fall on him and worry him.
b. A pack or troop of other animals.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., I. 48. What a kennell of these Wolves, Leopards, &c. was there in France.
1765. T. Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., I. i. 114. The howling of a kennel of wolves.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen (1847), 217. A kennel of very fine lions … I say a kennel of lions, for the beasts were … simply chained up like dogs.
† c. fig. A pack, crew, gang, of persons. Obs.
1581. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 39. Dionisius, and I know not how many more of the same kennell.
1649. Fuller, Just Man’s Funeral, 12. Hear the whole kennel of Atheists come in with a full crie.
1720. T. Gordon, Cordial for Low Spirits, 77. We are enchanted by a stupid Kennel of Stock-Jobbers.
† d. Used for CANAILLE. Obs.
1726. Penn’s Tracts, Wks. I. 730. It has not only prevail’d with the Populace, the Kennel [ed. 1679 Cannale], the Vulgar.
1771. E. Long, Trial of Dog ‘Porter,’ in Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 199. A liquor the London kennel much delight in.
3. attrib. and Comb., as kennel-door, -groom, -huntsman, -man; kennel-shaped adj.; kennel-book, a book recording events of a kennel where dogs are bred; cf. herd-book, stud-book.
1890. Marg. Deland, Sidney, iii. 42. One of these researches among *kennel-books resulted in a present to Ted of the mastiff puppies.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1140. Þenne þise cacheres þat couþe, cowpled hor houndes, Vnclosed þe *kenel dore, & calde hem þer-oute.
1875. W. S. Hayward, Love agst. World, 4. The kennel-door was thrown open.
1829. Sporting Mag., XXIII. 208. My *kennel-groom has orders frequently to lead the dogs to little distance from the kennel. Ibid. (1828), XXIII. 23. Your *kennel-man should be constantly on the watch.
1898. Yorksh. Archæol. Jrnl., No. 57. 7. His wife Margaret … wears the *kennel-shaped head-dress.
