pendent, -ant, a. (prep.)
(ˈpɛndənt)
[orig. penda(u)nt, a. F. pendant: see pendant n. About 1600, this began to be written pendent, after L. pendens, -entem, and this has now become the more frequent spelling, though pendant is often used, esp. in senses associated with those of the n.]
1. Hanging; suspended from or as from the point of attachment, with the point or end hanging downwards; dependent. Of a tree: having downhanging branches. Formerly often following its n., esp. in Heraldic use.
† letters pendants (so OF.): letters having seals attached.
| c 1412 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 423 Gownes of scarlet,..with pendant sleues downe On þe grounde. 1481 Caxton Godeffroy cxiii. 171 He sente lettres pendantes oueral his londes. 1486 Bk. St. Albans B j, The pendaunte federis. 1593 Nashe Four Lett. Confut. Wks. (Grosart) II. 220 A iolly long red peake..whereat a man might hang a Iewell, it was so sharpe and pendant. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iv. vi. 42 Loose en-roab'd, With Ribonds-pendant, flaring 'bout her head. 1602 ― Ham. iv. vii. 173 There on the pendant boughes, her Coronet weeds Clambring to hang. 1625 in Rymer Foedera (1726) XVIII. 237 One emrauld Pendent, one blewe Saphire, and three Pearls Pendent. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Barometer, Pendant Barometer is a machine rather pretty, and curious, than useful. 1807 Wordsw. Wh. Doe iv. 91 The pendent woodbine. 1858 Lytton What will he do i. v, The boat gently brushed aside their pendant boughs. |
b. pendent with, hanging with, hung with.
| 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. viii. (1856) 60 Their tunnel-like roofs were often pendant with icicles. |
2. Overhanging; jutting or leaning over; also, descending in a steep slope; slanting; placed or hanging on a steep slope.
| c 1400 Laud Troy Bk. 9244 With swerdes gode that were trenchaunt Fauȝt thei to-gedur by that hil pendaunt. 1515 Barclay Egloges iv. (1570) C vj b/1 A mountayne..With pendant cliffes of stones harde as flent. 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1008/2 The whole countrie..is pendent towards the south and west parts. 1613–39 I. Jones in Leoni tr. Palladio's Archit. (1742) II. 51 The top..is pendent, to throw the Rain-water off. 1644 Evelyn Diary 22 Oct., Another pendant towre like that at Pisa. 1708 J. Philips Cyder i. 109 On..that cloud-piercing hill Plinlimmon, from afar the traveller kens Astonish'd, how the goats their shrubby browze Gnaw pendant. 1847 Emerson Poems (1857) 40 By the pendent mountain's shade. |
b. fig. Overhanging; impending. rare.
| 1805 E. de Acton Nuns of Desert I. 28 The clouds blackened, the tempest was pendant. 1877 Tennyson Harold ii. ii, Having..lied like a lad That dreads the pendent scourge. |
3. Hanging or floating unsupported in the air or in space; supported above the ground on arches, columns, etc. Now rare or Obs.
| c 1600 Timon iv. iii. (Shaks. Soc.) 67, I hearde from Pseudocheus..that the moone was an ilande pendante in the air. 1601 Holland Pliny xxxvi. xii. II. 578 The pendant gallery and walking place at Gnidos. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. i. 126 To be imprison'd in the viewlesse windes And blowne with restlesse violence round about The pendant world. c 1790 J. Imison Sch. Art i. 247 An inverted image of the object will..seem to hang pendant in the air. 1813 Eustace Tour Italy (1815) II. 15 Strabo..represents it as a pendent garden raised on lofty arches of white stone, planted with evergreen shrubs. |
4. Hanging in the balance, remaining undecided or unsettled, pending.
| 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Lent v, Those same pendant profits, which the spring And Easter intimate. 1829 Southey in Q. Rev. XLI. 412 Our then pendant disputes in America. 1832 ― Hist. Penins. War III. 204 To wait the effect of a treaty then pendent with Spain. 1880 Muirhead Ulpian ii. §2 So long as the condition is pendent he remains a slave of the heir's. |
5. Gram. Of which the grammatical construction is left incomplete.
| 1849 W. Fitzgerald tr. Whitaker's Disput. 150 Though there be in the holy scriptures some pendent sentences, and inversions. 1859 tr. Bengel's Gnomon I. 526 The construction of the language is pendent. 1884 Farrar Camb. Grk. Test., Luke xxi. 6 ταῦτα {aaspergrave} θεωρεῖτε. It is what is called the ‘pendent nominative’. |