Sc. and north. [Origin uncertain; in sense identical with the Kentish quant; for the difference in vowel cf. kell and call (CAUL sb.1).]

1

  1.  ‘A long staff, properly such a one as shepherds use for leaping over ditches or brooks’ (Jam.); a long pole used in leaping ditches, climbing mountains, etc.; a leaping pole.

2

1606.  in Pitcairn, Crim. Trials, II. 519. The said W. R., haifing ane grit grene Kent and squarit batoun in his hand.

3

a. 1700.  N. Burn, in Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1733), II. 196. Shepherds … With cur and kent upon the bent.

4

1721.  Ramsay, Richy & Sandy, 19. A better lad ne’er lean’d out o’er a kent.

5

1890.  J. Veitch, in Blackw. Mag., Sept., 328/2. He placed his long pole or kent in front of him.

6

  2.  A punting-pole.

7

1844.  Richardson, Borderer’s Table Bk., VII. 175, note. When the stream is of equal depth, a kent or pole is used. [So on the Tweed and Teviot in 1850.]

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