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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

STENT, v.¹, n.¹ Also stint. Pa.p. stent(ed). [stɛnt]

I. v. 1. (1) tr. To stretch, extend, draw out to full length, strain, make taut (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Fif., Lth. 1926 Wilson; m.Sc. 1971), freq. of the stomach with food. Pa.p. stent(it), stretched out, tight (Fif., Lth. 1926 Wilson Cent. Scot. 268), taut, tense (Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Mining Terms 64), stiff, also used adv. and fig. busy, occupied.Sc. 1721 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) I. 159:
The tempting Bait, and stented String, Beguile the Cod, the Sea-Cat, Tusk and Ling.Sc. 1754 J. Justice Scots Gardiner 291:
Matts or Canvass, stented upon Frames, to put up before the plants.Dmf. 1771 Morison Decisions 14280:
Stenting nets across the river or across the arch of Annan bridge.Kcb. 1789 D. Davidson Seasons 120:
Until her apron was sae stent The strings in targets flew.Edb. 1791 J. Learmont Poems 279:
Friendship's bands lies stenter i' ane's ha'.Bwk. 1801 “Bwk. Sandie” Poems 56:
I trow o' brose an' bannocks baith We've been fair stentit.Fif. 1841 C. Gray Lays 179:
Our lang runkled painches will now, like a can, Be stentit wi' brose o' auld Scotland.Gsw. 1879 A. G. Murdoch Rhymes 51:
“Macrimmon” in the corner set, His stentit pipes loud chantin'.Ayr. 1887 J. Service Dr Duguid 232:
A leddy walkin' doon the rig in the munelicht, as stent an' as straught as a rash.Ayr. 1895 H. Ochiltree Redburn ii.:
The sound as of a string snapping . . . “Ye've been haudin' ower stent,” said Grannie.em.Sc. 1920 Scotsman (14 July):
A certain farmer, who was much annoyed at the way the awards [at a ploughing-match] were given, exclaimed, “I'll never stent a thate at your match again.”Lnk. 1922 T. S. Cairncross Scot at Hame 61:
He couldna' haud string stent.s.Sc. 1933 Border Mag. (Aug.) 125:
Stenting out a piece of the twine.Gall. 1934 Galloway News (29 Sept.):
A stentit line, Joe's skreichin' reel.Sh. 1949 J. Gray Lowrie 85:
I feels kinda stented, so lies back ower ta solist.ne.Sc. 1954 Mearns Leader (7 May) 3:
He stintit ane o' his feet agin the hoose wa' an' gae anither big heave.m.Sc. 1991 Tom Scott in Tom Hubbard The New Makars 39:
Closed abuin his heid, he'd got baith neives
Ticht on the stentit rope, and free'd his haus.

(2) specif. of the strings of a musical instrument. Hence stenter, one who stretches strings, a fiddler.Per. 1802 S. Kerr Poems 47:
The hair ta'en frae a horse o' bluid, Wi' fine brass screw sae nicely stentit.Dmf. 1820 Blackwood's Mag. (April) 56:
If lady's fingers ever touched stented thairm to a better sang than that.Clc. 1882 J. Walker Poems 31:
Oh! may thy reels thro' Hielant chanters Be blawn, and play'd by catgut stenters.

2. To stretch cloth on a frame to dry and set after milling.Sc. 1701 Edb. Gazette (6–10 Feb.):
46 Ells of white Stirling Searge stented.Abd. 1763 Aberdeen Jnl. (14 Feb.):
A Shear-board and Conroying-loom for stenting Cloth.

3. To draw out (dough) to a point, in baking.Sc. 1903 Confectionery and Baking Craft (March 1947) 119:
“Stented,” referring to the moulding of rolls, means “ making sharp or pointed at the end.”

4. Derivs. and combs.: (1) stenter, (i) one of a pair of parallel wooden beams on which cloth was stretched to dry after milling, a tenter, also in pl. form, construed as a sing.; (ii) a clothes-prop (Slg., Fif., wm. and sm.Sc. 1971); (iii) a frame for making quilts on (Dmf., Slk. 1971); (iv) an extension of a roadway, a built-up approach to a bridge; (v) = Eng. tenter (see quot.) (Sc. 1875 W. Knight Dict. Mech.). Also in n.Eng. dial.; (2) stentin(g), †-en, †-on(e), (i) material, e.g. coarse linen or canvas, used for stiffening a garment; (ii) the cord which attaches the hook to the main cable of a fishing-line, a Snuid (Kcb. 1964); (3) stenting-bogie, see quot.; (4) stenting-post, a strainer in a wire fence (Slg., Fif., Lth., wm., sm., s.Sc. 1971); (5) stentin stick, the bridge of a fiddle; (6) stent-net, a salmon-net stretched on stakes across a river, where stent is prob. the ppl.adj.; (7) stent-(t)ree, = (1) (i) above.(1) (i) Abd. 1712 Abd. Jnl. N. & Q. VII. 223:
For a stemers [MS. stenters] to Beatie . . . 12s.Sc. 1729 Session Papers, Litsters v. Wakers (4 July) 3:
They took a Wak mill, and set up Stenters and Shear-boards.Slk. 1781 T. Craig-Brown Hist. Slk. (1886) II. 145:
Robert Clapperton, dyer, Selkirk Mills, allowed ground for a house with liberty to fix stenters on the Green.(iv) Fif. 1866 St Andrews Gazette (7 July):
He intimated his intention of building on the “stenters” at the bridge [in Anstruther].(v) wm.Sc. 1842 Children in Trades Report (2) I 4:
The stenters, who hang printed goods in frames to dry.(2) (i) Abd. 1701 Abd. Jnl. N. & Q. VI. 178:
Twe ells of stenten to soll my stockings.Rnf. 1728 W. Hector Judicial Rec. (1876–8) I. 125:
For 1/2 buckram and stinten . . . 5d.Sc. 1746 Tailor's Acc. in Atholl MSS:
Threed Silk twist Stintin and Styteep.Sc. 1776 T. Pennant Tour 1772 II. 66:
Buckrams and coarse cloths or stentings; of which 12 millions of yards are annually exported from Perth.(3) Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Mining Terms 64:
Stenting-bogie. A wheeled waggon or bogie carrying a pulley round which the haulage rope is passed, tension of the haulage rope being secured by the bogie being pulled in the opposite direction by the heavy weight.(4) Per. 1868 Perthshire Jnl. (18 June):
To remove the wire-fence on the outside of the hedge to the inside of it, with an additional wire and stenting posts.(5) Dmf. 1797 Edb. Mag. (Dec.) 458:
But whist, my muse, Pate's fiddle scarce dou squeel; Think ye the straught up stentin stick is fawn.(6) Sc. a.1712 Fountainhall Decisions (1759) I. 293:
Their fishing with stent-nets.Abd. 1795 Session Papers, Leslie v. Fraser (29 March 1805) 78:
No net can be counted stent-nets, unless such as cross the water.(7) Kcd. 1722 Elphinstone Bk. (Fraser 1897) II. 277:
A pair long stentrees.Sc. 1725 Caled. Mercury (27 Dec.):
4 Breadths of Holland for a Peticoat, just as they came out of the stent trees.Ork. 1747 P. Ork. A.S. XII. 49:
A Stent trees, a smal empty fir box.

5. intr. (1) To stretch, extend itself (Sh. 1971).Sh. 1888 B. R. Anderson Broken Lights 87:
My craig stentin' oot till ye'd tink he wid crack.

(2) To strain, strive, exert oneself, bend oneself (to a task), in Sh. with at, adv. (Sh. 1971).Edb. 1773 Fergusson Poems (S.T.S.) II. 190:
Then Deacons at the counsel stent To get themsel's presentit.Lth. 1918 A. Dodds Lothian Land 47:
A brawer pair, ye maun alloo Ne'er did on iron stand; Their match ne'er stentet tae a ploo In a' the Lothian land.Sh. 1967 New Shetlander No. 82. 36:
Fok aa ower Shetland ir stentin at ta feenish da hairst.

II. n. 1. Stretch, extent, though poss. in this sense rather a usage of Stent, n.³Sc. 1721 J. Kelly Proverbs 329:
The Bag to the old Stent, and the Belt to the Yule Hole.Ayr. 1892 H. Ainslie Pilgrimage 314:
At the stent o' my string, When a fourth o' the earth Lay 'tween me and Scotland.

¶2. A pole in a river on which to fix a stent-net (see I. 4. (6)). A nonce back-formation from stent-net.Sc. 1863 Ho. of Lords Reports (1866) 548:
The right to put a stake or stents in the alveus of the river . . . for the purposes of fishing.

3. = stenter, I. 4. (1) above (Dmf. 1917).

4. Urgency, stress, hurry. Cf. I. 4. (2) but phs. confused with Stent, n.³Sh. 1879 Shetland Times (22 March):
Der no sae muckle stent apo' dy goon, doo haes mair clednaboon as ony tree lasses i' da parishin'.