kempt

adjective

No English definition recorded for this entry.

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /kɛm(p)t/

adj

Etymology: Partly from both of the following: * An adjective use of kempt, the past participle of kemb (“(obsolete except UK, dialectal) to comb”), from Middle English kemben (“to comb (oneself or someone, or something); to card (wool, etc.); to make (something) elegant or smooth; (figurative) to make (something) gentle”) (compare the past participle forms kempde, kempte), from Old English cemban (“to comb”) from Proto-West Germanic *kambijan (“to comb, kemb”), from Proto-Germanic *kambijaną (“to comb, kemb”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“tooth; row of teeth”), from *ǵembʰ- (“to bite, chomp; to crunch”). * A back-formation from unkempt.

Of a person's beard or hair: combed.
“Faint and in pain he propped his weary head, / And his kempt beard adown his bosom spread.”
“For a moment Boshy thought his senses were playing up with him, for there in the door entrance stood the identical girl—the same turkey-egg complexion, stubby nose, and her red hair only changed from unkempt to kempt.”
Of wool or other fibres: combed.
“[W]hen maidens vvere to be vvedded, there attended upon them a diſtaffe, dreſſed and trimmed vvith kembed vvooll, as alſo a ſpindle and yearne upon it.”
Neat and tidy.
“The street paving was badly worn, but looked marvelously smooth and kempt to Winterbourne, accustomed to roads worn into deep ruts and reft with shell-holes.”
“He could see her now: middle-aged, gray hair, well kempt, European-looking.”

verb

Etymology: From kemb + -t (suffix forming the past tense and/or past participle forms of verbs).

simple past and past participle of kemb.