ken

Verb

ken (third-person singular simple present kens, present participle kenning, simple past and past participle kenned)

1. (obsolete) To give birth, conceive, beget, be born; to develop (as a fetus); to nourish, sustain (as life).
   • The Treatise on The Paster Noster (15th c.)

     To the soul this ghostly bread is the learning and the teaching and the understanding in the commandments of God, wherethrough the soul is kenned and lives.

Noun

ken (uncountable)

1. Knowledge, perception, or sight.
   • 1957, United States Congressional serial set - Issue 11976:

     These people, these 20 or 25, were in my ken. Senator Jenner. In his what? Mr. Greenglass. My ken, my line of vision, my knowledge.

   • 1977, Roulhac Toledano, ‎Sally Kittredge Evans, The Esplanade Ridge:

     On this occasion, I wrote to them: "Two more modest and deserving people than you are not in our ken; and it is but fitting that you receive this, preservation's most prestigious prize, for your selfless devotion to the cause through the years.

   • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:

     Though he was out in the streets and away from the Firm and the Firm's ken, though he had work to do and action to relieve him, he was angry.

   • 1999, Catherine Z. Elgin, Considered Judgment:

     Since nothing in our ken differentiates knowledge from luck, something beyond our ken is introduced to do so. But the conviction that we know something is small comfort when coupled with the realization that we cannot tell what.

   • 2012, Keith McCarthy, Nor All Your Tears:

     I couldn't see the funny side myself, but Tristan could; after a while he could hardly control his merriment, in fact, so that he collapsed back on the bed, continuing to chortle, more of his rather unpleasant teeth making an unwelcome appearance in my ken.

2. (nautical) Range of sight.
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 59-60:

     At once as far as Angels kenn he views

     The dismal Situation waste and wilde ...

Verb

ken (third-person singular simple present kens, present participle kenning, simple past and past participle kenned or kent)

1. (transitive, chiefly Scotland) To know, perceive or understand.
2. (obsolete, chiefly Scotland) To discover by sight; to catch sight of; to descry.
   • 1662 Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogue 2):

     I proposed to the Mariners, that it would be of great benefit in Navigation to make use of [the telescope] upon the round-top of a ship, to discover and kenne Vessels afar off.

   • Addison

     We ken them from afar.

   • Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida Act4 Sc5 line14

     'Tis he. I ken the manner of his gait.

Noun

ken (plural kens)

1. (slang, Britain, obsolete) A house, especially a den of thieves.
   • 1611, Middleton, Thomas, “The Roaring Girl”, in Bullen, Arthur Henry, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton‎, volume 4, published 1885, Act 5, Scene 1, pages 128–129:

     Ben mort, shall you and I heave a bough, mill a ken, or nip a bung, and then we'll couch a hogshead under the ruffmans, and there you shall wap with me, and I'll niggle with you.

   • 1828, Bulwer-Lytton, Edward, Pelham: or The Adventures of a Gentleman‎, page 383:

     Ah, Bess, my covess, strike me blind if my sees don't tout your bingo muns in spite of the darkmans. Egad, you carry a bene blink aloft. Come to the ken alone—no! my blowen; did not I tell you I should bring a pater cove, to chop up the whiners for Dawson?

   • 1851, Mayhew, Henry, London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1, page 351:

     Up she goes to any likely ken, where she knows there are women that are married or expect to get married, and commences begging.

Usage notes

• Ken is old-fashioned in tone (or dialectal).

Inflection

• See kuka.

Synonyms

• (who): kuka
• (whoever): kuka tahansa

Conjugation

Derived terms

• kence
• kenés
• kenet

(With verbal prefixes):

Usage notes

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Inflection

Inflection

Derived terms

• ken-ni
• ken-se
• koje-ken
• niken