[app. the same as CAMP sb.4, a. ON. kamp-r beard, moustache, whisker of a cat, lion, etc.] A coarse or stout hair, as those of the eyebrows (obs.); now, hair of this kind occurring among wool. Also in comb. kemp-hair; kemp-haired a.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1276. Lik a grifphon looked he aboute, With kempe [v.r. keempe] heeris on hise browes stoute.
1570. Levins, Manip., 59/45. Kemp, haire, grandebala.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 9. To cutt of all the shaggie hairy woll … this the shepheardes call forcinge of them, and cuttinge of kempe-haires. Ibid., 11. Sheepe which … are thinne skinn’d … or kempe-hair’d.
1805. Luccock, Nat. Wool, 170. Its staple was perfectly free from kemps and wild hair, so common upon the backs of northern sheep.
1849. Rowlandson, in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. Eng., X. II. 436. The fineness of the Ryeland fleece and freedom from kemps.
