"kempt" meaning in English

See kempt in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /kɛm(p)t/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-kempt.wav [Southern-England]
Rhymes: -ɛmpt Etymology: Originally a past participle of kemb, from Middle English kemben, from Old English cemban (“to comb”). Modern uses are back-formations from the negative unkempt. More at kemb, comb. Etymology templates: {{m|en|kemb}} kemb, {{inh|en|enm|kemben}} Middle English kemben, {{inh|en|ang|cemban||to comb}} Old English cemban (“to comb”), {{m|en|unkempt}} unkempt, {{l|en|kemb}} kemb, {{l|en|comb}} comb Head templates: {{head|en|adjective}} kempt
  1. (now humorous) Neat and tidy; especially used of hair. Tags: humorous Synonyms: well-groomed Related terms: ill-kempt

Download JSON data for kempt meaning in English (2.8kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "kemb"
      },
      "expansion": "kemb",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "kemben"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English kemben",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "cemban",
        "4": "",
        "5": "to comb"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English cemban (“to comb”)",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "unkempt"
      },
      "expansion": "unkempt",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "kemb"
      },
      "expansion": "kemb",
      "name": "l"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "comb"
      },
      "expansion": "comb",
      "name": "l"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Originally a past participle of kemb, from Middle English kemben, from Old English cemban (“to comb”). Modern uses are back-formations from the negative unkempt. More at kemb, comb.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "adjective"
      },
      "expansion": "kempt",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English back-formations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 189",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1982, Michael Blodgett, Captain Blood, page iii. 342",
          "text": "He could see her now: middle-aged, gray hair, well kempt, European-looking.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Neat and tidy; especially used of hair."
      ],
      "id": "en-kempt-en-adj-k4K5NMta",
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "Neat",
          "neat"
        ],
        [
          "tidy",
          "tidy"
        ],
        [
          "hair",
          "hair"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(now humorous) Neat and tidy; especially used of hair."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "ill-kempt"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "well-groomed"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/kɛm(p)t/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɛmpt"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-kempt.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/47/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-kempt.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-kempt.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/47/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-kempt.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-kempt.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "kempt"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "kemb"
      },
      "expansion": "kemb",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "kemben"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English kemben",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "cemban",
        "4": "",
        "5": "to comb"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English cemban (“to comb”)",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "unkempt"
      },
      "expansion": "unkempt",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "kemb"
      },
      "expansion": "kemb",
      "name": "l"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "comb"
      },
      "expansion": "comb",
      "name": "l"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Originally a past participle of kemb, from Middle English kemben, from Old English cemban (“to comb”). Modern uses are back-formations from the negative unkempt. More at kemb, comb.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "adjective"
      },
      "expansion": "kempt",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "ill-kempt"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English 1-syllable words",
        "English adjectives",
        "English back-formations",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English humorous terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English terms derived from Middle English",
        "English terms derived from Old English",
        "English terms inherited from Middle English",
        "English terms inherited from Old English",
        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Rhymes:English/ɛmpt",
        "Rhymes:English/ɛmpt/1 syllable"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 189",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1982, Michael Blodgett, Captain Blood, page iii. 342",
          "text": "He could see her now: middle-aged, gray hair, well kempt, European-looking.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Neat and tidy; especially used of hair."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "Neat",
          "neat"
        ],
        [
          "tidy",
          "tidy"
        ],
        [
          "hair",
          "hair"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(now humorous) Neat and tidy; especially used of hair."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/kɛm(p)t/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɛmpt"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-kempt.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/47/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-kempt.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-kempt.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/47/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-kempt.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-kempt.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "well-groomed"
    }
  ],
  "word": "kempt"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (a644e18 and edd475d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.