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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, n.³, v.³ See also Stint. [stɛnt]

I. n. 1. (1) Limits, bounds, restraint; the limit to which one is prepared to go in any matter (Fif., Lth., Peb., Dmf. 1971). Adj. stentless, endless, unlimited.Rxb. 1728 Melrose Par. Rec. (S.R.S.) 154:
Laird Marr is appointed to reduce his seat to its former stent.Edb. 1821 W. Liddle Poems 150:
Shore them with the pith of hemp, 'Twill surely keep them mair in stent.Gsw. 1872 J. Young Lochlomond Side 46:
Some wily foeman cuist a hitch Upon our hero's stentless tether.Edb. 1957:
I'll give you £5 for it. That's my stent.Sc. 1983 John McDonald in Joy Hendry Chapman 37 44:
tak tent o the ae life threidin
frae aiglet tae aiglet, the ae life
dirlin in ilka pynt - a pynt whaur
stentless virr comes fair saucht,
whaur life comes daith and daith life. Sc. 1991 John McDonald in Tom Hubbard The New Makars 89:
I staun,
atween the gean an a deeper pairt o mysel
(that's the deepest pairt o awthing);
witness tae the stentless crucifeein
an the stentless resurrectin.

(2) The extent of one's days, one's allotted span.Abd. 1926 C. Murray Last Poems (1969) 15:
I ken I'm mortal, short my stent.

2. (1) An allotted task, a portion of work to be covered in a given time (Sc. 1710 T. Ruddiman Gl. to Douglas Aeneis s.v. stant, 1808 Jam.; Fif., Lth. 1926 Wilson Cent. Scot. 268; ne., m., s.Sc. 1971); specif. an amount of yarn to be spun; a length of coal seam to be cut by a miner (Fif. 1956); a stretch of a drill of potatoes to be gathered by one pair of workers (Mry. 1954).Abd. 1733 A. Watt Hist. Kintore (1865) 94:
Such a proportion of flaughter fail to the bridge of Tuack as shall ledget the said bridge, conform to the stint to be intimate by the town officer.Edb. 1773 Fergusson Poems (S.T.S.) II. 158:
Owsen . . . unyokit frae their winter's stent.Abd. 1778 A. Ross Helenore (S.T.S.) 52:
Their stent was mair nor they cud well mak out.Abd. 1797 Aberdeen Mag. 350:
Ilka quean sat gaffin' at her wheel Forgetfu' that her stent was yet to reel.Sc. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm III. 754:
On shifting the workers from one stent to another.Abd. 1881 W. Paul Past & Present 57:
A task was assigned to them [maid-servants] called a “stent”, which they had to finish before night, and most of them sang songs and ballads during its performance.Ags. 1920 D. H. Edwards Muirside 24:
A “stent” of yarn was spun each day.Rxb. 1920 Hawick Express (17 Dee.) 3:
Aboot a fifty 'eers syne it was nae uncommon thing for th' stockin'-makers tae bei putten on th' stent — that was they were only allowed tae turn oot work tae th' value o' ten or twal shillin's a week — reduced production it wad bei now ca'ed.Slg. 1932 W. D. Cocker Poems 30:
We've dune oor stent gey bonnie.ne.Sc. 1963 Evening Express (11 Oct.):
They call the sections “stents” up here, at the “tatties.”Fif. 1987:
A stent oan the totties. w.Lth. 2000 Davie Kerr A Puckle Poems 3:
The bings oot-by, lik dour black cairns,
raised ti a special breed o men, -
o moles, wha howk thir stent o coal an then, ...

(2) Extended to mean a competition in speed at a task, by confusion with Kemp, n., 1.Ags. 1894 J. B. Salmond My Man Sandy (1899) 31:
Mysie an' me were baith at ribbit socks, so we tried a stent wi' ane anither.

3. A step or stage in any progression.e.Lth. 1892 J. Lumsden Sheep Head 194:
From birth and upwards, stent by stent I trace thy strange “development.”

4. The proportion of pasture-land in a common allocated to each tenant; the number of animals allowed to each for pasturage (Dmf. 1917), a Soum. Comb. stent-money, money paid to a farm-servant in lieu of a right to pasture a certain number of sheep on his master's grass.Rxb. 1700 Stitchill Ct. Bk. (S.H.S.) 146:
It is allowed to the Possessors in the said Maynes to put thereon a certain Stent of the sheip.m.Lth. 1740 Morison Decisions 13837:
His house, park, garden, pigeon-house, offices and slent [sic] in the haugh [Inveresk].m.Lth. 1781 Caled. Mercury (25 Aug.):
These Fifteen Acres of Arable Land . . . together with the Grass Pasturage or Stents in the haugh of Inveresk, pertaining thereto.Bwk. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XI. 117:
Foulden Muir, was occupied by the residenters in the village, by way of stents, or pasture for cows and horses.Bwk. 1828 A. Thomson Lauder (1902) 46:
Allowed each 3 lambs to be kept beyond their present stent.Rxb. 1917 Kelso Chron. (13 July) 2:
£5 of stent money (or what they called sheep money).

II. v. 1. intr. To stop, cease, desist (Sc. 1808 Jam.), halt.Lnk. 1723 Minutes J.P.s (S.H.S.) 218:
Stenting at the brew of the hill.e.Lth. 1745 D. Herd Songs (1776) I. 109:
Thro' Tranent, e'er he did stent.Abd. 1777 R. Forbes Ulysses 25:
Syne took his coach, an' milk-white staigs, 'Ere ever I wad stent.Kcb. 1814 W. Nicholson Tales 30:
An' show'd me a', before we stentit.

2. tr. To confine, restrict, limit, check, curb (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Rxb. 1971); to scrimp, stint. Ppl.adj. stentit, delimited, definite.Sc. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Shep. ii. i.:
And may he lang, for never did he stent Us in our thriving, with a racket Rent.Sc. 1733 Orpheus Caledonius I. 4:
Wae's me! for baith I canna get, To ane by Law we're stented.Edb. 1791 J. Learmont Poems 116:
[That] maks cauld winter stentit bounds to ken.Ags. 1840 G. Webster Ingliston xxx.:
Stentin' yoursel' to that, and see how fat you will grow upon it.Rxb. 1847 J. Halliday Rustic Bard 175:
Let levellers their ootlay stent.Gsw. 1856 Deil's Hallowe'en 35:
Canna ye stent your gab a wee?Kcd. 1880 W. B. Fraser Laurencekirk 307:
O' sense in rhyme he ne'er was stentit.Edb. 1881 J. Smith Habbie and Madge 66:
To stent me doun to a certain sum every week.Rxb. 1942 Zai 123:
Ee're stentit tae that = you are limited to that.

3. (1) To apportion (work); to impose a specified task on, to allocate a job to, to set (a person) to a given amount of work; to drive (someone) hard at his work, to exert (oneself). Vbl.n. stentin(g), a task, assigned job, a social evening spent at some domestic task. Ppl.adj. stented, appointed, entrusted (with a duty).Ayr. 1785 Burns Author's Earnest Cry xv.:
Thee Sodger Hugh — my watchman stented.Sc. 1806 R. Jamieson Ballads II. 155:
The riddles of Girzey Sinclair may nevertheless be read with pleasure, by such as have heard them in their earlier years at stentings and rockings around the wintery ingle in Scotland.Ayr. 1821 Scots Mag. (April) 351:
Stentit to the makkin o' a tale out o' hill-an'-heap.Ags. 1849 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 333:
The entire number of band-wins are again placed or stented, into their ridges, in the same order as they were by the steward.Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 181:
They stentit themselves wee thir spinnan.Abd. 1882 T. Mair John o' Arnha' 104:
And ilka stentin thro' the hairst, They tried each other fairly.Ags. 1901 W. J. Milne Reminiscences 138:
The hours of work were long, every kind of work, both in and out, being stented, or measured into tasks.Lth. 1924 A. Dodds Poppies in Corn 14:
Bit at the tatties every yin is stentet, And deevil tak' the hinmaist is the cry.Sc. 1926 H. McDiarmid Drunk Man 85:
A' the notions that I love Drap into stented groove and groove.