kempt
Americanadjective
-
neatly or tidily kept.
a kempt little cottage.
-
combed, as hair.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of kempt
First recorded before 1050; 1925–30 kempt for def. 1; Middle English kempte, kembyd; Old English cemd-, past participle of cemban “to comb”; comb, unkempt
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Even less kempt, Walton Goggins gets to play an angry, avenging figure, given to oratory and mind games.
From New York Times • Jan. 9, 2020
His clients remember a kempt businessman who donned a clean, dark-blue smock and never gave his customers a set price.
From Washington Post • Jul. 18, 2015
He sits unnoticed in the restaurant: that straggling hair which fell below the shoulder line is almost classically kempt now.
From The Guardian • Apr. 24, 2013
From DavidHurren: "Didn't Giant Haystacks have something of a WG Grace look, maybe with a less well kempt beard?"
From BBC • Dec. 17, 2010
Brightly colored houses sat prettily in their kempt plots, side by side.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
