compt

From Latin comptus, past participle of comere (“to care for, comb, arrange, adorn”).

compt (comparative more compt, superlative most compt)

1. (obsolete) Neat; spruce.
   • 1600, George Abbot, An exposition upon the prophet Jonah‎^[1], page 592:

     who is not much more carefull of the grace of his head, than of his health? who maketh not more account to be compt, than to be honest?

   • 1623, John Vicars, Æneid:

     A compt, accomplished prince.

   • 1904, Thomas Urguhart, transl., Master Francis Rabelais: Five Books Of The Lives, Heroic Deeds And Sayings Of Gargantua And His Son Pantagruel‎^[2], published 1693, page 109:

     And my wife will be jocund, feat, compt, neat, quaint, dainty, trim, tricked up, brisk, smirk, and smug, […]

Variant of count.

compt

1. (obsolete) Account; reckoning; computation.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     Your servants ever have theirs,/Themselves and what is theirs, in compt, /To make their audit at your highness' pleasure, /Still to return your own.

   • 1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     it would be difficult for a youth of his age to follow the expositions of a practical lawyer, concerning actions of compt and reckoning, and of multiple-poindings, and adjudication and wadsets, proper and improper, and poindings of the ground and declarations of expiry of the legal.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

compt (third-person singular simple present compts, present participle compting, simple past and past participle compted)

1. (obsolete) To compute; to count or consider.
   • 1792, John Spalding, The History of the Troubles and Memorable Transactions in Scotland, page 340:

     For some were warded in the Pittie-vault, some set caution to remove from the town, after they had compted and reckoned for their tavernry with their mistresses; […]

   • 1568, Bishops' Bible, Genesis 30:33:

     So shall my ryghteousnes aunswere for me in time to come: for it shal come for my rewarde before thy face. And euery one that is not specked and partie amongst the goates, & blacke amongst the sheepe, let it be compted theft in me.

   • a. 1535, Thomas More, Lady Fortune:

     The gyftes of fortune compt the, as borowed ware
     Who so delyteth to prouen and assaye

Abbreviations.

compt (plural compts)

1. Abbreviation of comptroller.

   Alternative form: compt.

2. Abbreviation of compliment.

• “compt”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

compt

1. alternative form of counten