Word.ws English Dictionary

vent

/vɛnt/

vent noun: an opening through which gases, especially air, can pass. Also the clipping of ventilation.

vent: an opening through which gases, especially air, can pass
Image: User Michiel1972 on nl.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

vent (plural vents)

  1. An opening through which gases, especially air, can pass.
    • the vent of a cask; the vent of a mould
    • 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.2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Picador, →ISBN, page 122
    Synonyms:
    outlet
  2. A small aperture.
    • Look, how thy wounds do bleed at many vents.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • There, at one Paſſage, oft you might ſurvey / A Lye and Truth contending for the vvay; / And long 'tvvas doubtful, both ſo cloſely pent, / VVhich firſt ſhould iſſue thro the narrovv Vent: […]1715, [Alexander] Pope, The Temple of Fame: A Vision, London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 41
  3. An opening in a volcano from which lava or gas flows.
  4. A rant; a long session of expressing verbal frustration.
  5. The excretory opening of lower orders of vertebrates; cloaca.
  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.
    Synonyms:
    touch hole
  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.
    • without the vent of words1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
    • Thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel.c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  11. (obsolete, rare) Discharge, efflux
    • Whenever, in cases of the morbus mucosus, the vent of urine is impeded, or if the urine itself is morbid in quality, the result […] is that there is a sense of heat and pain in the medulla spinalis, which is opposite to the kidneys.1825, John Fosbroke, Practical Observations on Certain Pathological Relations which Exist between the Kidneys and Other Organs of the Human Body
    • she had two more teeth out, with vent of pus from bicuspid1908, Kenneth Weldon Goadby, “Two Cases Of Acute Pyorrhoea Alveolaris Treated By A Specific Vaccine”, in British Medical Journal, volume 2, number 2486

Verb (1)

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 gases to escape from (a sealed space, container, etc.).
    • In the engine room, the changing angle dropped the melted core to the deck. The hot mass attacked the steel deck first, burning through that, then the titanium of the hull. Five seconds later the engine room was vented to the sea. The Politovskiy's largest compartment filled rapidly with water....1984, Tom Clancy, “The Eighth Day: Friday, 10 December”, in The Hunt for Red October, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, →ISBN, pages 194–195
  3. (transitive) To allow to escape through a vent.
    • Exhaust is vented to the outside.
  4. (intransitive, transitive) To express a strong emotion.
    • He vents his anger violently.
    • Can we talk? I need to vent.
    Synonyms:
    let off steam
  5. To snuff; to breathe or puff out; to snort.
    • Seest, howe brag yond Bullocke beares, So smirke, so smoothe, his pricked eares?[…] See howe he venteth into the wynd.1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Februarie. Ægloga Secunda.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC
  6. (transitive) To determine the sex of (a chick) by opening up the anal vent or cloaca.
  7. (intransitive) Of an otter: to emerge from the water to breathe in air.
  8. (intransitive, slang) To use a vent in the video game Among Us.
    • We suspect they’ve vented to medbay and are intending to use some kind of surgical tools to ‘upgrade’ the original Among Us with a bunch of cool new features and levels, instead of starting over from scratch with the sequel.2020 September 24, Jen Rothery, “Among Us 2: everything we know about the sequel”, in PCGamesN, Bath, Somerset: Network N Media, archived from the original on 18 Sep 2020
    • “Among Us” has become ingrained into Generation Z’s culture in such a way that phrases such as “yellow is sus,” “purple vented” or “skip vote” are part of our daily vernacular.2020 November 19, Muhammad Tariq, “Those we didn't know are ‘Among Us’”, in The California Aggie, volume 139, number 7, Davis, Calif.: Associated Students of UC Davis, →OCLC, page 8, column 2

Noun (2)

vent (plural vents)

  1. Ventriloquism.

Verb (2)

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

  1. To sell; to vend.
    • Therefore did those nations […]vent such spice.1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5)

Noun (3)

vent (plural vents)

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

Verb (3)

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

  1. (colloquial) To ventilate; to use a ventilator; to use ventilation.

Proper noun capitalized: Vent

Vent (plural Vents)

  1. A surname from Dutch.

Also used as

vent is also the clipping of ventilation.

vent meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

vent in Hindi

वेंट, वेंट करें

vent in Tamil

வென்ட்

vent in Marathi

व्हेंट

vent in Urdu

وینٹ, وینٹ کریں
More languagesFewer languages
vent in Bengali
ভেন্ট
vent in Telugu
వెంట్, వెంట్ చెయ్యడానికి
vent in Malayalam
വെൻ്റ്, വെൻറ്, വെൻ്റ് ചെയ്യാൻ
vent in Punjabi
ਵੈਂਟ
vent in Gujarati
વેન્ટ
vent in Odia
ଭେଣ୍ଟ
vent in Nepali
भेन्ट, भेन्ट गर्नुहोस्, भेन्ट गर्न
vent in Tagalog
lilong
vent in Arabic
نَفَّسَ naffasa, هَوَّى hawwā, نَفَّسَ عَن naffasa ʕan

Examples of vent in a sentence

  • Five seconds later the engine room was vented to the sea.1984, Tom Clancy, “The Eighth Day: Friday, 10 December”, in The Hunt for Red October, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, →ISBN...
  • When you’re venting as an impostor, you’ll be able to peer through the grille to see who’s passing by.2022 June 9, Kris Holt, “‘Among Us VR’ Trailer Shows First-Person Tasks, Venting And Emergency Meetings”, in Forbes, Jersey City, N.J....

All 40 example sentences with vent

Synonyms of vent

Forms of vent

Noun
pluralvents
Verb
third-person singular presentvents
present participleventing
past participlevented
pastvented
Proper noun
pluralVents

Past tense of vent: vented

Plural of vent: vents

Origin of vent

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

Clipping of ventriloquism.

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

Words formed from vent

Phrases with vent

Words that rhyme with vent

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about vent

What does vent mean?
Vent means an opening through which gases, especially air, can pass.
What is vent in Hindi?
Vent in Hindi is वेंट, वेंट करें. See Vent meaning in Hindi.
How do you use vent in a sentence?
Five seconds later the engine room was vented to the sea.
What part of speech is vent?
Vent can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce vent?
Vent is pronounced /vɛnt/.
What is the plural of vent?
The plural of vent is vents.

Words near vent in the dictionary

  1. venousness
  2. venovenous
  3. Venray
  4. Venson
  5. Vensons
  6. vent
  7. vent one's gall
  8. vent one's spleen
  9. vent pecking
  10. vent sex
  11. vent sexed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: vent (page history and authors); Vent (page history and authors); vent (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); vent (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); vent (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); vent (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); vent (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); vent (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); vent (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); vent (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); vent (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); vent (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); vent (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-vent.ogg.

Cite this entry: “vent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.