kench

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛntʃ

Noun

kench (plural kenches)

1. A bin or enclosure in which fish or skins are salted.
   • 1896 November – 1897 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Captains Courageous”, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, published 1897, →OCLC:

     And while Harvey was taking in knowledge of new things at each pore and hard health with every gulp of the good air, the We're Here went her ways and did her business on the Bank, and the silvery-gray kenches of well-pressed fish mounted higher and higher in the hold.

   • 1911, Raymond McFarland, A History of the New England Fisheries: With Maps, page 304:

     In the former process, the fish are thoroughly salted and placed in regular piles on top of each other, called kenches.