kenning

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A figurative, usually compound expression used in place of a name or noun, especially in Old English and Old Norse poetry; for example, storm of swords is a kenning for battle.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The cicatricula or tread of an egg. Also kinning.
• noun In Old Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and other old Teutonic poetry, a distinctive poetical name, usually periphrastic in form, used in addition to, or substituted for, the usual name of a thing or person.
• noun Sight; view; especially, a distant view at sea.
• noun Range or extent of vision, especially at sea; hence, a marine measure of about twenty miles.
• noun As little as one can recognize or discriminate; a small portion; a little: as, put in a kenning of salt.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun obsolete Range of sight.
• noun The limit of vision at sea, being a distance of about twenty miles.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The tread of an egg; cicatricula.
• noun A metaphorical phrase used in Germanic poetry (especially Old English or Old Norse) whereby a simple thing is described in an allusive way, such as ‘whale road’ for ‘sea’, or ‘enemy of the mast’ for ‘wind’.
• noun obsolete Sight; view; a distant view at sea.
• noun obsolete Range or extent of vision, especially at sea; (by extension) a marine measure of approximately twenty miles.
• noun As little as one can recognise or discriminate; a small portion; a little.
• verb Present participle of ken.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun conventional metaphoric name for something, used especially in Old English and Old Norse poetry