▪ I. drant, draunt, v. dial.
(drɑːnt, -æ-)
[app. onomatopœic, after drawl or drone and rant. Recorded from Scotl. and E. Anglia. Other dialects have drunt, drate.]
intr. To drawl or drone in speech. b. trans. To drawl or drone out.
| 1724 Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. (1733) II. 141 To drivel and drant While I sigh and gaunt. a 1774 Fergusson Poems (1789) II. 74 (Jam.) To draunt and drivel out a life at hame. 1796 Burns On Life viii, Lest you think I am uncivil To plague you with this draunting drivel. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Drant, to drawl in speaking or reading; more properly draunt (like aunt). It may be connected with drone. |
▪ II. drant, draunt, n. dial.
[f. prec. vb.]
a. A droning or drawling tone. b. ‘A slow and dull tune’ (Jam.).
| 1721 Ramsay Lucky Spence's Last Advice ii, Nor wi' your draunts and droning deave me. 1781 Burns Tarbolton Lasses (2nd Poem) xiv, To wait on their drants. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia s.v., He reads with a drant. 1852 Aird Mem. Moir in M.'s Poet. Wks. I. ii. 29 A kind of rant, or drant..often fixes itself upon the public. |