ent

plural ents · alternative Ent

1. fantasyA large, fictional, humanoid, walking tree in works by J. R. R. Tolkien.

   Hello, my good friend, myself I present. Not human, nor tree, for I am an ent.

   2006, John Allran, Men of Their Word, page 37

   4 more examples

   […]and that fine young ent Quickbeam is merely a minor crux in an Old English glossary (the name Quickbeam means 'living tree' in Old English).

   2003, Walter Scheps, “The Fairy-tale Morality of The Lord of the Rings”, in Jared Lobdell, editor, A Tolkien Compass

   But this should not lead to complete avoidance, as if it is like some dire incursion of triffids or ents.

   2003, Allen Paterson, Trees for Your Garden, page 180

   Somewhere, ents and manitous laugh grimly For, despite all this, the trees lasted much longer Than most of the presents, and all of the holiday spirit.

   2003, Robert Dunn, Horse Latitudes, page 98

   In The Lords of the Rings there are dark forces in the forest—the Huorn. Huorn are ents who have become more treeish, gone rogue. They can still move and speak, but only with the ents.

   2017, Inga Simpson, Understory, Hachette UK, →ISBN

present singular third person ents · participle present enting · participle past ented · past ented

1. CornwallTo pour, especially of rain.

   "And look at it enting down. I'm glad I'm not out in it."

   2015 April 28, Beth Hersant, Good Neighbours, Troubador Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 285

   3 more examples

   "[…] ent me out some beer, / Fill up my glass to quinch my thust, Weth bitter like thee'st gove me fust."

   1880, Cornish tales, Cornish tales, in prose and verse, in the Cornish dialect [ed. by J.T. Tregellas]., page 26

   A Truro correspondent remembers being sent to buy a teapot with the admonition 'and see he got a good ent to un'; that is, of course, a good 'pour'. "Enting down with rain" is still occasionally heard.

   1976, K. C. Phillips, Westcountry Words and Ways, Newton Abbot: David & Charles, page 47

   'Stay a space longer,' urged Music. 'Look at'n. 'Tis enting down.' 'Put yer clothes on, then,' said Katie. You'll catch yer death.' He dragged off into the scullery and presently emerged in his Sunday best.

   2019 October 22, Winston Graham, The Twisted Sword: A Novel of Cornwall, 1815, St. Martin's Griffin, →ISBN

plural ENTs

1. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablemedicineInitialism of ear, nose and throat.
   1. countableuncountablemedicineAn otorhinolaryngologist; a physician who treats the ear, nose, and throat.
2. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableastronomyInitialism of extreme nuclear transient.

   Synonyms: extreme nuclear transient

plural Ents

1. Alternative letter-case form of ent.

   Ents and Entwives, Jack thought crazily. BAD Ents and Entwives.

   2001, Stephen King, Peter Straub, The Talisman, page 133

   4 more examples

   The strange words and names that the Hobbits record as used by Treebeard and other Ents are thus Elvish, or fragments of Elf-speech strung together in Ent-fashion.

   1955 October 20, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings […], New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published December 1978, →ISBN, page 510

   Tolkien's Treebeard, his Ent creation, was inspired by Lewis, especially his sometimes emphatic deep voice

   2003, Colin Duriez, Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship

   Tolkien perhaps speaks for himself when he has Treebeard confess that "nobody cares for the woods as I care for them," and when this same Ent also warns that "the withering of all woods may be drawing near"

   2003, Ralph C. Wood, The Gospel According to Tolkien: Visions of the Kingdom in Middle-earth

   The Ents are a race of giant, tree-like people. Their purpose is to protect the electrons, though some align themselves with holes. However, as the great arrays have grown, the number of Ents has dwindled. Now they are said only to be found in the darkest and most mysterious of laboratories.

   2004, Paola Amico, James Beletic, Scientific Detectors for Astronomy: The Beginning of a New Era, page xxvi