Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as kenspeck, and the more common form.

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

  • adjective Scot. Having so marked an appearance as easily to be recognized.

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

  • adjective Scotland Easily recognized, distinctive, conspicuous.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Alteration of kenspeck.

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Examples

  • I have left him in the upper cleugh, as he is somewhat kenspeckle, 27 and is marked both with cut and birn โ€” the sooner the skin is off, and he is in saultfat, the less like you are to have trouble โ€” you understand me?

    The Monastery 2008

  • It is a kenspeckle hoof-mark, for the shoe was made by old Eckie of

    The Monastery 2008

  • December 26th, 2006 at 4: 15 pm kenspeckle ยป search, wikified

    Wikia To Launch Search Engine: Exclusive Screenshot Michael Arrington 2005

  • The immediate front of a battle is a bit too public for anyone to lie hidden in by day, especially when two or three feet of snow make everything kenspeckle.

    Greenmantle 2005

  • But later, old Morrison was heard to remark that yon young Solomon had a heid on his shoothers, richt enough, a kenspeckle lad - no 'like some that sauntered and drank awa' their time, an 'sponged off their betters, etc.

    Flashman's Lady Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1977

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

    Gilian The Dreamer His Fancy, His Love and Adventure Neil Munro

  • Through the throng of bearded sailors we strode and made our way to the kitchen of the Quay Inn. A place sacred to kenspeckle folk it was, and from its smoke-stained rafters hung many pieces of bacon and dried shallots, and there were also bunches of centaury, and camomile, and dandelion root, and bogbean, for the goodman's wife was cunning in medicines of the older-fashioned sort.

    The McBrides A Romance of Arran John Sillars

  • 'Up wi' him! 'cried Madge wi' the Fiery Face, who had just been loosed from the 'jougs,' wherein she had been confined for 'kenspeckle incontinence.'

    Border Ghost Stories Howard Pease

  • Red Donald brought with him a hundred claymores and he wasna half so kenspeckle (conspicuous).

    A Daughter of Raasay A Tale of the '45 William MacLeod Raine 1912

  • The immediate front of a battle is a bit too public for anyone to lie hidden in by day, especially when two or three feet of snow make everything kenspeckle.

    Greenmantle John Buchan 1907

Comments

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  • Clearly the coolest synonym for conspicuous around, and generally used in the sense of "Lauren is kenspeckle for her blog, kenspeckle.net," although obviously that's kind of a lie. First used as "kenspeck" in Sir Thomas Cokaine's A short treatise of hunting and as "kenspeckle" in Susanna Centlivre's The Wonder! a Woman keeps a Secret. More here.

    December 6, 2006

  • "Then there was the kenspeckle figure of The Marquis, as he was known. Dressing normally for odd jobs like droving and fencing, when he attended the sales at Oban he emerged like a butterfly from a chrysalis. Blue Sunday suit, tight brown boots, an oilskin coat hung over his shoulder on a length of stack rope - he even shaved for the occasion."

    - 'The Name Game', P.A. MacNab in The Scots Magazine, Dec 2001.

    February 26, 2008

  • Some villains look mild and respectful,

    As Hyde was concealed in Doc Jekyll.

    The cruel one within

    Who's seeking to sin

    Succeeds if he's never kenspeckle.

    September 3, 2014

  • The plunge left the street quite dreck-filled.

    Poor henpecked Ken in anger heckled,

    So Barbi, in spite,

    Pushed Ken from a height,

    Thus leaving us all below kenspeckled.

    September 4, 2014

  • At a merchant's in the Luckenbooths I had myself fitted out: none too fine, for I had no idea to appear like a beggar on horseback; but comely and responsible, so that servants should respect me. Thence to an armourer's, where I got a plain sword, to suit with my degree in life. . . . The porter, who was naturally a man of some experience, judge my accoutrement to be well chosen.

    "Naething kenspeckle," said he; "plain, dacent claes. As for the rapier, nae doubt it sits wi' your degree; but an I had been you, I would has waired my siller better-gates than that."
    Robert Louis Stevenson, Catriona (1892), pt. I, ch. 1

    November 19, 2015