Definition of "kennel"

A fals double tunge is more fiers and fellThen Cerberus the cur couching in the kenel of hel;Wherof hereafter, I thinke for to write,Of fals double tunges in the diſpite.

c. 1515-1516, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c., published 1568

A little herd of England's timorous deer, / Mazed with a yelping kennel of French curs!

1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, act 4, scene 2

A world of mere Patent-Digesters will soon have nothing to digest: such world ends, and by Law of Nature must end, in ‘over-population;’ in howling universal famine, ‘impossibility,’ and suicidal madness, as of endless dog-kennels run rabid.

1843, Thomas Carlyle, “IX: Working Aristocracy”, in Past and Present, book 3

Truth's a dog must to kennel;

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear, act 1, scene 4

The Dog Kennell'd in the Body of a Hollow Tree, and the Cock Roosted at night upon the Boughs.

1669, Sir Roger L'Estrange, Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists‎, Fable CXLIII: A Dog and a Cock upon a Journey, page 130

Below to thy nightly grave ; where such as ye sleep between shrouds, to use ye to the filling one at last. — Down, dog, and kennel!"

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 29, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, page 139

This is the time that the horseman are flung out, not having the cry to lead them to the death. When quadruped animals of the venery or hunting kind are at rest, the stag is said to be harboured, the buck lodged, the fox kennelled, the badger earthed, the otter vented or watched, the hare formed, and the rabbit set.

1819, John Mayer, The Sportsman's Directory, or Park and Gamekeeper's Companion

Ay, kennel, puddle, sink, whose filth and dirt / Troubles the silver spring where England drinks […] .

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene i]

[A] scavenger working in the kennel

1630, Ios. Exon. [i.e., Joseph Hall of Exeter], edited by R[obert] H[all], Occasionall Meditations, London: […] [Benjamin Alsop and T. Fawcet?] for Nath[aniel] Butter

Soon ſhall the Kennels ſvvell vvith rapid Streams, / And ruſh in muddy Torrents to the Thames.

, [John] Gay, “Book I. Of the Implements for Walking the Streets, and Signs of the Weather”, in Trivia: Or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London, London: […] Bernard Lintott, […], page 11

[A] chair happening to pass, he laid hold of the opportunity, and by an exertion of his muscles pitched upon the top of the carriage, which was immediately overturned in the kennel […] .

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume IV, London: Harrison and Co., […], page 102

A biting wind whistled through the streets, the pavements were dotted with umbrella-laden figures, the kennels ran like mill-sluices, while the roads were only a succession of lamp-lit puddles through which the wheeled traffic splashed continuously.

1899, Guy Boothby, Pharos the Egyptian