kenspeckle

or ken·speck·led

[ ken-spek-uhl ]

adjectiveScot. and North England.
  1. conspicuous; easily seen or recognized.

Origin of kenspeckle

1
1705–15; derivative (see -le) of kenspeck (<Scandinavian; compare Norwegian kjennespak quick at recognizing, literally, know-clever); see ken

Words Nearby kenspeckle

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use kenspeckle in a sentence

  • You may consider yourself 'geyan fine,' all covered over with Scotch plaid, but I wouldn't be so 'kenspeckle' for worlds!

  • There was little kenspeckle about them saving their colour, which was a dull dark red.

  • Now he felt kenspeckle, not in any suit of material clothes but in a droll sense of nakedness.

    Gilian The Dreamer | Neil Munro
  • When we reached Blackford Hall I found more than a kenspeckle countryside to remind me of homeland.

    Betty Grier | Joseph Waugh
  • A vagrant with white mice is a kenspeckle, and surely you can have no difficulty in tracing her.

British Dictionary definitions for kenspeckle

kenspeckle

/ (ˈkɛnˌspɛkəl) /


adjective
  1. Scot easily seen or recognized

Origin of kenspeckle

1
C18: from dialect kenspeck, of Scandinavian origin; compare Old Norse kennispecki power of recognition; related to ken

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012