Standard Lemma guide

hent

verb · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

verb

Meaning 1

To take hold of, to grasp.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

Examples

  • 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Pardoner's Tale", The Canterbury Tales, republished 1897 [Clarendon Press], Walter W. Skeat (editor), Chaucer's Works: Volume 4, 2018 reprint, Outlook Verlag, page 533, This cursed man hath in his hond y-hent / This poyson in a box, and sith he ran / In-to the nexte strete, un-to a man, / And borwed [of] him large botels three;

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

To take away, carry off, apprehend.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

To clear; to go beyond.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle English henten (also hynten, hinten > English hint), from Old English hentan (“to pursue, chase after, seize, arrest, grasp”), from Proto-West Germanic *hantijan, from Proto-Germanic *hantijaną (“to seize”), related to Icelandic henta (“to suit, beseem”), Old English huntian (“to hunt”), Old High German hunda (“spoils, booty”).