An earlier form of BENT, still commonly retained in the south of England, in the sense of ‘grass-stalk,’ ‘old stalk of grass.’ Way Bennet: the Wild Barley-grass (Hordeum murinum). See BENT sb.1 Also in comb.
1669. W[orlidge], Syst. Agric. (1681), 177. Only feeding of them [Pigeons] … about Midsummer before Pease be ripe, which time they usually call Benting-time, because then necessity inforceth them to feed on the Bents or seed of Bennet-grass.
1862. Barnes, Rhymes Dorset Dial., II. 85. Wither’d bennet-stems. Ibid., Ser. III. 73. Above the bennet-bearing land.
1880. Jefferies, Hodge & M., I. 135. The lowly convolvulus grew thickly among the tall dusty bennets.
