Meanings
present singular third person hents · participle present henting · participle past hented · past hented · alternative hente
- obsoleteTo take hold of, to grasp.
And in the grekynge of the day Sir Gawayne hente his hors wondyrs for to seke.
1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum ix”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book V, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC1 more example
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;
- obsoletetransitiveTo clear; to go beyond.
Origin
- Proto-Germanic*hantijaną“to seize”
- Proto-West Germanic*hantijan
- Old Englishhentan“to pursue, chase after, seize, arrest, grasp”
- Middle Englishhenten
- Englishhent
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”).
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
hent. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hent
“hent.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hent. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hent,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hent.
Source: hent on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.