ˈvernant, a. Now rare or Obs.
Also 5 vernand, 6 vernaunte, varnaunt.
[a. OF. vernant vernal, ad. L. vernant-, vernans, pres. pple. of vernāre to flourish, be verdant.]
1. Flourishing or growing in, or as in, spring.
| c 1440 York Myst. xxv. 498 Hayll! vyolett vernand with swete odoure. 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 606 A..plante, Whiche dayly encreased by sufferaunce deuyne, Merueylously growynge in her, fresshe and varnaunt. Ibid. 2808 Whiche tree to this day, endurynge all the yere, By myracle is vernaunte, fresshe, green, and clere. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 83 A floure, whan it is fresshe, vernant & newe,..is moche delectable & swete. 1567 Turbervile Poems 110 Vernant flowers that appeere To clad the soile with mantell newe. 1615 R. Brathwait Strappado, etc. (1878) 316 The tree sent out her Branches, which did couer their corps with vernant blossoms. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 679 Else had the Spring Perpetual smil'd on Earth with vernant Flours. 1728–30 Thomson Spring 81 The penetrative Sun..sets the steaming Power At large, to wander o'er the vernant Earth. 1842 Fraser's Mag. XXVI. 80 The vernant branches feel the breeze. Ibid. 82 The cool delicious shade Of vernant oak. |
| transf. and fig. 1607 Brewer Lingua i. i. A iiij b, Oft haue I..embelisht my entreatiue phrase With smelling flowres of vernant Rhetorique. 1615 R. Brathwait Strappado, etc. (1878) 317 Let not your vernant bosome so retaine, all comfort from the oat-pipe of a Swaine. 1661 Bp. Rust Origen & his Opinions 89 The excellencie of the vernant youth and spring of the renewed world. |
b. Freshly green; verdant.
| 1594 Willobie Avisa (1880) 97 The flowring hearbes, the pleasant spring, That deckes the fieldes with vernant hew. 1621 R. Brathwait Nat. Embassie 3 Should I not..garnish her with Flora's vernant hue? |
2. Pertaining to the spring; vernal.
| 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes iv. 211 The Trees..were so closely interwoven, that the vernant and æstivall Sunne beames could not pierce their rare imbroydery. |
3. Of or forming the ‘spring-time’ of life.
| 1794 W. Roberts Looker-on III. 381 The green platform of our vernant years. |