verdant, a.
(ˈvɜːdənt)
Also 7 verdent.
[f. verd- (as in verdure) + -ant, perhaps partly after L. viridant-, viridans, pres. pple. of viridāre, f. viridis green. Cf. also OF. verdeant (virdeant), verdoiant (F. verdoyant).]
1. Of a green hue or colour; green: a. Of vegetation.
| 1581 A. Hall Iliad i. 1 Chryses..With verdant crown, wherewith Apoll his seemely head had clad. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. ix. 13 The verdant gras my couch did goodly dight. 1633 Cowley Constantia 114 Th' verdant grasse was dew'd with many a teare. 1662 J. Davies tr. Mandelslo's Trav. 267 Fruit-trees,..which keep on their verdant Liveries all the year long. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 64 The Walks which before were covered with Nature's verdent awning..are now open to the Sun. 1764 R. Lloyd Capricious Lovers v. ii, When eve embrowns the verdant grove. 1796 H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) III. 334 We soon discovered the profound and verdant forests which cover Celtic Gaul. 1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 337 Where ornamental hedges and other verdant architectural structures are to be grown. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. l. (1856) 474 Crowned each with its little verdant tuft,—ten radishes! |
b. In other applications. rare.
| 1649 Lovelace Grasshopper Poems 35 Poore verdant foole [sc. a grasshopper], and now green Ice! 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 501 [The] Serpent..With burnisht Neck of verdant Gold, erect Amidst his circling Spires. 1738 Gray Tasso 67 Here the soft emerald smiles of verdant hue. |
2. Green with vegetation; characterized by abundance of verdure.
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. ii. 17 Streames of purple bloud new dies the verdant fields. 1647 Ogilby Virg. Georg. iv. 322 Gliding Streams..Which border nigh the Quiver'd Persian Land, And verdant Egypt Marl with fruitful Sand. 1667 Milton P.L. viii. 631 The parting Sun Beyond the Earths green Cape and verdant Isles Hesperian sets. 1738 Wesley Ps. xxiii. ii, Where peaceful Rivers soft and slow Amid the verdant Landskip flow. 1784 Cowper Task vi. 70 As I tread The walk, still verdant, under oaks and elms. 1815 Elphinstone Acc. Caubul (1842) I. 381 In the midst of a verdant and pleasing country, which enjoys a temperate climate. 1817 Moore Lalla R., Fire-Worshippers iv. 90 Like those verdant spots that bloom Around the crater's burning lips. 1868 M. E. Braddon Dead Sea Fr. ii, The verdant avenues and placid water. |
3. fig. Of persons: Green, inexperienced, gullible.
| 1824 Byron Juan xv. xciii, Because my business is to dress society, And stuff with sage that very verdant goose. 1854 Poultry Chron. I. 269/2, I spoke of simple facts in my own experience, and with the..object of warning ‘verdant’ purchasers. 1869 Punch 14 Aug. 57/1 Flush of his money and just as refreshingly verdant. |
Hence ˈverdantness, verdancy. rare—0.
| 1727 Bailey (vol. II), Verdantness, a flourishing, bright, or lively Greenness. |