pent en · ADJ · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /pɛnt/
- (Southern-England) audio
Etymology
From pen + -t.
Meanings
-
Confined in, or as if in, a pen; imprisoned.
My object all sublime I shall achieve in time — To let the punishment fit the crime — The punishment fit the crime; And make each prisoner pent Unwillingly represent A source of innocent merriment! Of innocent merriment!
1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert; Arthur Sullivan, composer, […] The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, London: Chappel & Co., […], →OCLC:As the old woman, with a gigantic and distorted image of herself thrown half upon the wall behind her, half upon the roof above, sat bending over the few loose bricks within which it was pent, on the damp hearth of the chimney—for there was no stove—she looked as if she were watching at some witch’s altar for a favourable token; […]
1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:Wherever Miss Clavering went, this infatuated young fellow continued to follow her; and being aware that his engagement to his cousin was known in the world, he was forced to make a mystery of his passion, and confine it to his own breast, so that it was so pent in there and pressed down, that it is a wonder he did not explode some day with the stormy secret, and perish collapsed after the outburst.
1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 46, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:Numa, ravenous with hunger, had long since learned the futility of roaring and moaning as he searched for prey, but now that it was as surely his as though already he had felt the soft flesh beneath his still mighty paw, he opened his huge jaws, and gave vent to his long-pent rage in a series of deafening roars that made the air tremble.
1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 181:
Deriveds
Relateds
Translations (10)
de eingesperrt (confined in a pen, imprisoned) · de eingekerkert (confined in a pen, imprisoned) · pt confinado (confined in a pen, imprisoned) · cs zadržený (confined in a pen, imprisoned) · cs zavřený (confined in a pen, imprisoned) · ru запертый (confined in a pen, imprisoned) · bg запрян (confined in a pen, imprisoned) · de gefangen (confined in a pen, imprisoned) · ru заключённый (confined in a pen, imprisoned) · bg затворен (confined in a pen, imprisoned)