sequent, a. and n.
(ˈsiːkwənt)
[a. OF. sequent, ad. L. sequent-em, pres. pple. of sequī to follow. Cf. Sp. siguiente, Pg. seguinte, seqüente, It. seguente, sequente.]
A. adj.
1. That follows or comes after. † a. That one is about to say or mention; (the) following, ensuing. Obs.
| a 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus i. 810 And scho in hand ane letter had quhairon Hir charge scho red, quhais tennour is sequent. 1607 Walter Diary (Camden) 15 There are extant books in print, the one by an eye-witness, to the sequent event. 1653 Ld. Brouncker tr. Des Cartes' Compend. Mus. 37 Such as are set in the Sequent Figure. 1821 Rouge et Noir 45 You'll find it in the sequent canto. |
b. That succeeds or is subsequent in time or serial order. Now rare.
| 1601 Shakes. All's Well v. iii. 197 Of six preceding Ancestors, that Iemme Confer'd by testament to 'th sequent issue Hath it beene owed and worne. a 1643 Ld. Falkland, etc. Infallibility (1646) 191 Miracles..creditably recorded from age to age, both in the Evangelists and other sequent Histories. a 1648 Ld. Herbert Hen. VIII (1649) 553 Priviledges..of which Lodovicus Pius was in Possession, and all the sequent Kings. 1651 Cartwright Cert. Relig. i. 79 What primitive, or sequent Church ever taught..such doctrine as this? 1667 Milton P.L. xii. 165 There he dies, and leaves his Race Growing into a Nation, and now grown Suspected to a sequent king. a 1763 Shenstone Econ. ii. 256 Virtue then Requires the pruner's hand, the sequent stage It barely vegetates. 1867 Emerson May-Day, etc., Wks. (Bohn) III. 439 Nor sequent centuries could hit Orbit and sum of Shakspeare's wit. 1873 M. Collins Squire Silchester ix, The Rector..enjoyed his sequent glass of port. 1887 Proctor Chance & Luck 133 From his sequent remarks it appears that he had very imperfect information. |
c. That follows or moves in the train of another. rare.
| 1612 Two Noble Kinsmen i. ii. 65 Either I am The fore⁓horse in the Teame, or I am none That draw i'th sequent trace. 1805–6 Cary Dante, Inf. v. 98 The coast, where Po descends To rest in ocean with his sequent streams. 1874 Ruskin Val D'Arno (1886) 229 The treatment of light and shadow in the figures of the Christ and sequent angels. |
2. That follows as a result or a logical conclusion. Const. to, on, upon.
| 1601 Shakes. All's Well ii. ii. 56 Indeed your O Lord sir, is very sequent to your whipping. 1603 ― Meas. for M. v. i. 378 Immediate sentence then, and sequent death, Is all the grace I beg. 1605 ― Lear i. ii. 115 The sequent effects. 1796 G. L. Way tr. Le Grand's Fabliaux I. 52 Her son's arrest, and sequent punishment. 1853 Zoologist II. 3871 Some of the inferences drawn are not sequent on the premises. 1878 P. Bayne Pur. Rev. iii. 82 The strictly sequent corollary to the Puritan view of Antichrist. |
3. Following one another in succession or in a series; successive.
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. ii. 41 The Gallies Haue sent a dozen sequent Messengers This very night, at one anothers heeles. 1870 Proctor Other Worlds xiii. 323 The never-ending chain of sequent events. 1877 E. R. Conder Basis Faith ii. 49 Every harmonious combination of events, sequent or coexistent. 1881 J. Sully Illusions 163 A very similar kind of unification takes place between sequent images under the form of transformation. 1884 [Laurie] Metaph. Nova & Vet. 115 The series of sequent movements which in a dog ends with the sensation of pain. |
b. Characterized by continuous succession; forming an unbroken series or course; consecutive.
| c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. lx, Like as the waues make towards the pibled shore, So..our minuites..In sequent toile all forwards do contend. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. xix. (Roxb.) 188/2 A file, is a sequent number of men standing one behind an other. 1860 Reade 8th Commandm. 318 A masterpiece of construction and arrangement, sequent, articulate, clear, pointed. 1872 Ruskin Aratra Pentelici 114 Perfectly arranged disposition of counted masses in a sequent order. 1875 Blackmore Alice Lorraine III. viii. 122 The sweet face, more and more lit up with sequent thought. 1898 Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. 58 Chamber to chamber of her sequent brain Gives answer. |
4. That forms a sequel or continuation.
| 1833 I. Taylor Fanat. Pref. 4 The nearly connected and sequent subject. |
B. n.
† 1. A follower, attendant. Obs. rare—1.
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. ii. 142 And here he hath framed a Letter to a sequent of the stranger Queenes. |
† 2. A unit of a sequence; esp. of playing-cards. Cf. sequence n. 4. Obs.
| 1620 E. Blount Horæ Subs. 49 There bee others that delight in figures, and their words fall in, one after another like sequents. 1730 Swift Game Traffic Wks. 1743 VIII. 169 Dame Floyd looks out in grave suspence For pair⁓royals and sequents. 1734 Seymour Compl. Gamester i. (ed. 5) 93 (Picquet) Each is to examine what Cards he has in his Hands of the same Suit, which are Sequents. |
† 3. The following narrative; the subsequent course of events; the sequel. Obs. rare—2.
| 1655 Terry Voy. E. India i. 36 A brave resolute man, as the sequent will demonstrate. a 1661 Fuller Worthies, Linc. (1662) ii. 164 Elias de Trekingham, was born..at a Village so called, as by the sequents will appear. |
4. That which follows in order (of arrangement, time, etc.).
| 1833 W. Wirt in J. P. Kennedy Life (1872) II. xx. 353 [The ‘De Senectute’ is] infinitely superior, I think, to that ‘De Amicitia’ which..follows it,—or even to the..‘Somnium Scipionis’, usually the sequent of the two former. 1893 Fairbairn Christ in Mod. Theol. ii. ii. §3. 55 The later [age] is the sequent in time but not in thought of the earlier. |
5. That which follows naturally as a result; the consequent of an antecedent; also in logical sequent.
| 1838 Blackw. Mag. XLIII. 200 Conscience, morality, and responsibility,..may be shown to be based in consciousness, and necessary sequents thereof. 1841 Myers Cath. Th. iv. §5. 193 No human thought can deal with them..as necessary antecedents or sequents in any logical deductions. 1884 [Laurie] Metaph. Nova & Vet. 119 The relation of antecedents and sequents. 1885 J. Martineau Types Eth. Th. (1889) I. 464 Assuming an interval between the two sequents (physical and mental) upon the molecular change. 1891 Speaker 2 May 528/1 Universal suffrage brought into France in 1789 its logical sequent; the right of the voter carried with it the duty of the defender. |