▪ I. pant, n.1 north.
(pænt)
[Origin unknown: sense 2 suggests Romanic pantano slough, bog; but the resemblance is prob. fortuitous.]
1. A public fountain, cistern, or well; usually a stone or iron erection with a spout, whence water is drawn, a conduit; also called pant-well (Jamieson 1825–80).
| 1586 in Mem. St. Giles's, Durham (Surtees) 13 Payd for the poore men's dycke that dwell att the pant. 1595 in R. Welford Hist. Newcastle III. 130 Every street hath his cistern or pant. 1857 Jeffrey Roxburgh. II. iii. 112 Water was brought from a well in Sudhope-Path to a pant erected for its reception at the Cross. Ibid. III. i. 12 A huge and unseemly pantwell, surmounted by a lamp stood in one corner. 1884 Besant Dorothy Forster iii. (1887) 28 A tri⁓angular green, having the village pant at the end. 1887 Newcastle Weekly Chron. Suppl. 23 July 2/5 Besides the numerous public pants,..there were [a 1846], in the most populous districts [of Newcastle], ‘farthing pants’, [at which]..one farthing was charged for a ‘skeel’ full of water. |
2. A pool into which water or moisture drains; a puddle.
| 1807 Stagg Misc. Poems 15 Lang stretch'd i' th' midden pant. 1808 R. Anderson Cumbld. Ball., Codbeck Wedding xii, He..stuck in a pant 'buin the middle. 1878 Cumbld. Gloss., Pant, a sump. [Ibid., Sump..a hole at the bottom of a pit to collect water in.] 1899 Speaker 23 Dec. 309/2 Where the water from the pant flows out of the farm-yard under a wall, the grass is soft and green. |
▪ II. pant, n.2
(pænt)
[f. pant v.]
1. One of a series of short quick efforts of laboured breathing, from exertion or agitation; a gasp, a catching of the breath.
| 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xiii. 53 Thair cumis ȝung monkis... And in the courte thair hait flesche dantis, Full faderlyk, with pechis and pantis. 1603 Drayton Bar. Wars (1619) v. lxiv, As yet his Breath found Passage to and fro, With many a short Pant, many a broken word. 1682 Bunyan Holy War 248 Here were groans, there pants. 1834 W. Godwin Lives Necromancers 221 The loud strokes of the hammer,..intermixed with the pants and groans of the workmen. 1845 E. Warburton Crescent & Cross xxiv. II. 212 Not a pant escaped from her [a mare's] deep chest. |
2. A throb or heave of the breast in laboured breathing or palpitation of the heart.
| 1581 T. Howell Devises E ij b, The hardest harte by proofe, doth yeelde an inwarde pante When good desyres are deprest. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iv. viii. 16 Leape thou..Through proofe of Harnesse to my heart, and there Ride on the pants triumphing. 1800 in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. IV. 270 The bosom's pant, the rosy-winding arm. 1805 W. Godwin Fleetwood I. vi. 139, I felt the quick pants of my bosom. |
3. transf. The regular throb and gasping sound of a steam-engine, as the valves open and shut.
| 1840 Ruskin Let. College Friend 4 July, Wks. 1903 I. 407 For you..have heaved the dark limbs of the colossal engine—its deep, fierce breath has risen in hot pants to heaven. 1853–8 Hawthorne Eng. Note-Bks. (1879) II. 53 Every pant of the engine. |
▪ III. pant, n.3
(pænt)
[sing. back-formation f. pants n. pl.]
1. = pants n. pl. U.S.
| 1893 H. A. Shands Some Peculiarities of Speech in Mississippi 49 Pant.., an abbreviation of pantaloons, used by clerks in dry-goods stores. They say: ‘I have a pant that I can sell you,’ etc. Of course, pants is a well-known abbreviation, but I think pant is rather a new word. 1936 A. L. Hench (MS. note dated Feb.), For six or seven years now, I have been hearing clothes dealers speak of a pair of pants as ‘a fine pant’. The reasoning seems to be that if a pile of pairs of pants is pants, then one pair is a pant. 1962 L.L. Bean Catal. Spring 10 A practical and well made pant for general sportswear. 1976 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 16 June 3-A/4 (Advt.), You just can't beat the value of this 3-piece jacket/dress/pant ensemble at our irresistible price... The pull-on pant makes a good thing better. |
2. attrib. and Comb., as pant-leg, pant look; pantcoat, a women's coat designed for wearing with trousers; pantdress, a dress with a divided skirt; pantskirt, a divided skirt; pant suit, pantsuit = trouser suit.
| 1970 N.Y. Post 16 Dec. 6 Pantcoat, on duty for wintry weather and for city traffic. 1974 New Yorker 25 Feb. 62/1 (Advt.), A great pantcoat: this Weatherbee, with its easy swing and snappy fit. |
| 1964 Women's Wear Daily 30 Nov. 44 Julie Isles..likes the pantdress that stops just above the knee. 1967 Maclean's Mag. Dec. 35 At far left a Persian pantdress in pure wool (with a matching mini⁓nightie, about $60). 1968 Pantdress [see pantskirt below]. |
| 1956 H. Gold Man who was not with It (1965) ix. 73 The pantleg was sticky where it was bruised. 1974 D. Richards Coming of Winter i. 6 He moved uphill very quickly, his boots and pantlegs soaking from the water. 1976 New Yorker 5 Jan. 22/3 We glanced down the row and saw..the next straightening the pant leg over his right calf in a single motion, and so on. |
| 1970 Women's Wear Daily 23 Nov. 31/2, I think another pant look will take over. |
| 1964 Times 3 Aug. 11 The pants and pantskirt as shown by Marc Bohan at Dior are for the country and around the house. 1968 N.Y. Times 15 July 43 This time, it is a more coordinated trend—pant-skirts, pant-dresses, pant-suits, tops and pants and so on. 1977 Evening Post (Nottingham) 27 Jan. 9/5 Stride ahead in this all-season look of a classic shirt paired with a trim pant-skirt. |
| 1966 Sun 15 June 3/1 ‘At least they didn't come in trouser suits.’ Two girls did. One wore a pant suit in pink and green linen. 1968 Telegraph (Brisbane) 24 Oct. 31/6 Model Kelly shows off the latest pantsuit in white stretch towelling. 1970 Harrods Christmas Catal. 14/1 Pant suit hangers. 1975 N.Y. Times 8 Sept. 33/4 Another woman..sits by herself looking aloof, brushing hairs off her well⁓pressed rust pantsuit. |
▪ IV. pant, v.
(pænt)
Also 5 pont, 6–7 paunt.
[Common from c 1440: earlier history not evidenced. App. related to (? shortened from) OF. pantoisier, -eisier, -aiser, -uisier, -iser, ‘to pant, to have the breath short, to breathe with labour’ (12th c. in Godef.); according to Gaston Paris (Romania VI. (1877) 628):—popular L. phantasiāre to be oppressed with nightmare, to gasp or pant with oppression, f. phantasia phantasy, nightmare.
Such a shortening of the Fr. vb. in Eng. is not very easy to account for: but pantiser may have been felt as a vb. with stem pant- and formative suffix -iser (cf. advert, advertise). In 16th c. F. there was also the vb. pantoier, pantoyer, while mod.F. has panteler to pant, in both of which pant- is app. taken as a stem and furnished with various formative suffixes.]
1. intr. To breathe hard or spasmodically, as when out of breath; to draw quick laboured breaths, as from exertion or agitation; to gasp for breath.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 381/2 Pantyn, anelo. c 1440 Hylton Scala Perf. (W. de W. 1494) ii. xxxiv, They streyne hemself..and panten soo strongly that they brast in to bodily feruours. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xvi. 238 War! I say, lett me pant, now thynk I to fyght ffor anger. 1470–85 Malory Arthur vii. xvii, Thus they foughte..tyl att the laste they lacked wynde both, and then they stode waging and scateryng pontyng, blowynge and bledynge. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 288 They blowe, and pant like discomfited souldiers. 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. ii. 126 He neuer stood to ease his Brest with panting. 1615 J. Manwood Lawes Forest (ed. 2) 3 marg., He that doth hunt a wilde beast, and doth make him paunt, shall pay 10. shillings. 1735 Somerville Chase iii. 509 He pants, he sobs apall'd; Drops down his heavy Head to Earth. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xvi. 112 He sometimes paused,..and panted like a chased deer. 1873 Hale In His Name vi. 49 The poor beast he rode came panting into the crowd. |
b. fig. Said of the wind or waves.
| 1666 Dryden Ann. Mirab. xcviii, Weary waves, with⁓drawing from the fight, Lie lulled and panting on the silent shore. 1717 Pope Eloisa 159 The dying gales that pant upon the trees. 1782 Cowper Expost. 721 A cold blast sings Through the dry leaves, and pants upon the strings. 1819 Shelley Ode to West Wind iv, If I were..A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share The impulse of thy strength. |
c. To go or run panting.
| 1713 Young Last Day i. 207 Words all in vain pant after the distress. 1770 Goldsm. Des. Vill. 94 As a hare..Pants to the place from whence at first he flew. 1871 Browning Balaustion 71 We could hear behind us plain the threats And curses of the pirate panting up In..passion of pursuit. |
d. transf. To emit hot air, vapour, etc., in loud puffs, as a furnace or engine.
| 1743 Davidson æneid viii. 250 The fire in the furnace pants. 1878 Browning La Saisiaz 98 Not a steam-boat pants from harbour. |
2. To gasp (for air, water, etc.); hence fig. To long or wish with breathless eagerness; to gasp with desire; to yearn (for, after, or to with inf.).
| 1560 Bible (Genev.) Ps. xlii. 1 As the hart braieth for the riuers of water, so panteth my soule after thee o God. 1605 Shakes. Lear v. iii. 243, I pant for life. 1611 Bible Ps. xlii. 1 As the Hart panteth after the water brookes, so panteth my soule after thee, O God. 1719 Young Revenge v. ii. When all the bliss I pant for, is to gain In hell a refuge from severer pain. 1752 Johnson Rambler No. 193 ¶2 Every man pants for the highest eminence within his view. 1781 Cowper Retirement 476 He..Pants to be told of battles won or lost. 1822 Byron Werner i. i, 'Tis to be amongst these sovereigns My husband pants! 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola xxiv, He panted for the threatening voice again. |
3. To throb or heave violently or rapidly; to palpitate, pulsate, beat: said of the heart, bosom, etc.; also of the blood.
| c 1460 Towneley Myst. xxiii. 52, I shall fownde, if that I may,..To cause his hart pante. 1535 Coverdale Ps. xxxvii[i]. 10 My hert paunteth, my strength hath fayled me. ― Isa. xxi. 4 Myne herte paunted. 1573–80 Baret Alv. P 71 To pant as the heart, or braine doth... My veines do beate, or pant. 1608 Merry Devil Edmonton in Hazl. Dodsley X. 228 His blood is good and clear, As the best drop that panteth in thy veins. 1781 Cowper Expost. 473 A breast that panted with alarms. 1819 Shelley Cenci ii. ii. 140 Her very name, But spoken by a stranger, makes my heart Sicken and pant. |
4. transf. Of an iron ship: To have its plating bulge in and out in the struggle with the waves.
| 1869 E. J. Reed Shipbuild. i. 12 Instances..of ships ‘panting’ in their fore compartments. 1890 W. J. Gordon Foundry 67 In the fore body and aft body there is much strutting and bracing, to prevent the new ship ‘panting’ in her struggles with the waves. |
5. trans. a. To utter gaspingly; to gasp out, etc.
| 1605 Shakes. Lear ii. iv. 31 Came there a reeking Poste,..halfe breathlesse, painting [Globe panting] forth From Gonerill his Mistris, salutations. 1778 F. Burney Evelina xlvi, ‘No,—no,—no—’ I panted out, ‘I am no actress’. c 1830 S. Ferguson Forging of Anchor ii, And thick and loud the swinking crowd at every stroke pant ‘ho!’ 1847 Tennyson Princess v. 23 At length my Sire..Panted from weary sides ‘King, you are free!’ |
† b. poet. To expel or drive forth or out by agitated gasping. Obs.
| c 1624 Chapman Batrachom. 110 His heart within him panted out repose, For th' insolent plight in which his state did stand. 1821 Shelley Prometh. Unb. iii. iii. 125 My spirit Was panted forth in anguish whilst thy pain Made my heart mad. |
▪ V. pant
obs. form of paint.