vent

Partly from Old French vent, from Latin ventus and partly from French éventer. Cognate with French vent and Spanish viento (“wind”) and ventana (“window”).

• IPA^(key): /vɛnt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnt

vent (plural vents)

A vent (opening) in the wall of a house.

1. An opening through which gases, especially air, can pass.

   the vent of a cask; the vent of a mould

   • 2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Picador, →ISBN, page 122:

     According to geologists who work in the area, the vents at Castello Aragonese have been spewing carbon dioxide for at least several hundred years, maybe longer.

2. A small aperture.
   • Shakespeare

     Look, how thy wounds do bleed at many vents.

   • Alexander Pope

     Long 'twas doubtful, both so closely pent, / Which first should issue from the narrow vent.

3. The opening of a volcano from which lava flows.
4. A verbalized frustration.
5. The excretory opening of lower orders of vertebrates.
6. A slit in the seam of a garment.
7. The opening at the breech of a firearm, through which fire is communicated to the powder of the charge; touchhole.
8. In steam boilers, a sectional area of the passage for gases divided by the length of the same passage in feet.
9. Opportunity of escape or passage from confinement or privacy; outlet.
10. Emission; escape; passage to notice or expression; publication; utterance.
    • Milton

      without the vent of words

    • Shakespeare

      Thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel.

• ridge vent

vent (third-person singular simple present vents, present participle venting, simple past and past participle vented)

1. (intransitive) To allow gases to escape.

   The stove vents to the outside.

2. (transitive) To allow to escape through a vent.

   Exhaust is vented to the outside.

3. (transitive, intransitive) To express a strong emotion.

   He vents his anger violently.

   Can we talk? I need to vent.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

     He inveighed against the folly of making oneself liable for the debts of others; vented many bitter execrations against the brother; and concluded with wishing something could be done for the unfortunate family.

   • 2013 June 18, Simon Romero, "Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders," New York Times (retrieved 21 June 2013):

     But the demonstrators remained defiant, pouring into the streets by the thousands and venting their anger over political corruption, the high cost of living and huge public spending for the World Cup and the Olympics.

4. To snuff; to breathe or puff out; to snort.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

Clipping of ventriloquism

vent (plural vents)

1. Ventriloquism.

• vent puppet

French vente, from Latin vendere (“to sell”).

vent

1. sale; opportunity to sell; market

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shelton to this entry?)

   • Sir W. Temple

     There is no vent for any commodity but of wool.

vent (third-person singular simple present vents, present participle venting, simple past and past participle vented)

1. To sell; to vend.
   • Sir Walter Raleigh

     Therefore did those nations vent such spice.

Spanish venta (“a poor inn, sale, market”). See vent (“sale”).

vent (plural vents)

1. (obsolete) A baiting place; an inn.

vent (plural vents)

1. (medicine, colloquial) Ventilation or ventilator.

   vent settings

• Env't

From Old Occitan vent, from Latin ventus, from Proto-Italic *wentos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wéh₁n̥ts < *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”).

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈvent/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /ˈben/

vent m (plural vents)

1. wind (movement of air).

• esventar
• ventós

vent

1. imperative of vente

• Rhymes: -ɛnt

• audio

  (file)

From Middle Dutch vent (“hero; man”). Unknown earlier origin. Compare West Frisian feint (“servant; fellow; boyfriend”) and Low German Fent (“young fellow”).

• Possibly from Proto-Germanic *fanþijô (“walker, walking”), from Proto-Indo-European *pent-, *penth- (“to go, pass”). This would make it related to Dutch vinden (“to find; (archaic) to explore”) and cognate to Old High German fendo (“footsoldier”) and Old English fēþa (“footsoldier”). The expected descendant in Dutch would have been vend(e), which existed in Middle Dutch as vende (“pawn in a chess game; farmer”). Final-obstruent devoicing is common in Dutch and was already widespread in Old Dutch, rendering vent as a variant of vend(e) possible.
• Possibly a shortening of vennoot (“partner (in a company)”), which is equivalent to a compound of veem (“(storage) company”) +‎ genoot (“companion, partner”), but there is no evidence of an overlap in senses.

vent m (plural venten, diminutive ventje n)

1. chap, fellow

See the etymology of the main entry.

vent

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of venten
2. imperative of venten

From Old French vent, from Latin ventus, from Proto-Italic *wentos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wéh₁n̥ts < *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”).

• IPA^(key): /vɑ̃/

• audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃

vent m (plural vents)

1. Atmospheric wind.
2. (euphemistic) A flatulence.
3. (uncountable) Empty words, hot air.

   Toutes ces promesses, c'est du vent. — Those are empty promises.

• (flatulence): pet (neutral)
• (empty words): paroles en l'air

• air
• courant

• “vent” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From Old French vent, from Latin ventus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”).

• Audio (Jersey)

  (file)

vent m (plural vents)

1. (Jersey, Guernsey) wind

vent

1. neuter singular of ven

vent

1. imperative of vente

vent

1. neuter singular of ven

vent

1. imperative of venta
2. imperative of vente

From Old Occitan vent, from Latin ventus.

vent m (plural vents)

1. wind (movement of air)

• esventar
• ventós

From Latin ventus.

• IPA^(key): /vãnt/
• Rhymes: -ãnt

vent m (oblique plural venz or ventz, nominative singular venz or ventz, nominative plural vent)

1. wind (movement of air)
   • circa 1110, Benedeit, Le Voyage de saint Brandan:

     Un meis sanz vent nagerent tut plein

     They sailed for a whole month without wind

• French: vent