kenning

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. 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.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Sight; view; especially, a distant view at sea.
2. n. Range or extent of vision, especially at sea; hence, a marine measure of about twenty miles.
3. n. As little as one can recognize or discriminate; a small portion; a little: as, put in a kenning of salt.
4. n. The cicatricula or tread of an egg. Also kinning.
5. n. 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. Such terms form a usual ornament of Anglo-Saxon verse, as in ‘Beowulf,’ ‘Exodus,’ etc. Examples are ‘whale-road,’ and ‘gannet's bath’ for ‘the sea,’ ‘ward of the bone-house’ (that is ‘keeper of the breast’), for ‘heart’ or ‘mind.’

Wiktionary

1. n. 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’.
2. n. The tread of an egg; cicatricula.
3. n. obsolete Sight; view; a distant view at sea.
4. n. obsolete Range or extent of vision, especially at sea; (by extension) a marine measure of approximately twenty miles.
5. n. As little as one can recognise or discriminate; a small portion; a little.
6. v. present participle of ken.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete Range of sight.
2. n. The limit of vision at sea, being a distance of about twenty miles.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. conventional metaphoric name for something, used especially in Old English and Old Norse poetry