▪ I. suppliant, n. and a.1 In mod. use poet. or rhet.
(ˈsʌplɪənt)
Also 5 -eant, 5–6 -iaunt, 6–7 -yant.
[a. F. suppliant (superseding older so(u)pleiant, -oiant), pr. pple. of supplier supply v.2
In early use sometimes stressed suˈppliant.]
A. n. One who supplicates; a humble petitioner.
| 1429 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 346/2 The seide Suppliauntz doubten hem of damage and prejudice. 1480 Cov. Leet Bk. 429 Albe-it your pore suppleant to his gret coste & charge hath demaunded the contentacion therof, ȝit he in no wyse can be satisfied. 1549–62 Sternhold & H. Ps. xxviii. ii, The voice of thy supplyant heare. 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 125 The blessed virgin..with her rodde loosed the bandes of her suppliant. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, i. i. 74 Heard you not what an humble Suppliant Lord Hastings was, for her deliuery? 1667 Milton P.L. x. 917 Thy suppliant I beg, and clasp thy knees. 1738 Wesley Ps. iv. i, God of my Righteousness Thy humble Suppliant hear. 1814 Byron Ode to Napoleon v, The Arbiter of others' fate A Suppliant for his own! 1848 Lytton Harold viii. iii, The mother is a suppliant to the son for the son. |
| Comb. 1669 Dryden Tyr. Love iv. i, She Suppliant-like, e're long, thy succour shall implore. |
B. adj. Supplicating, humbly petitioning.
| a 1586 Sidney Arcadia iii. (1912) 418 One might see by his eyes (humbly lifted up to the window where Philoclea stood) that he was rather suppliaunt, then victorious. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. iii. i. 234 When she for thy repeale was suppliant. 1666 Dryden Ann. Mirab. ccl, The Rich grow suppliant, and the Poor grow proud. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxvii. (1787) III. 46 The tribunal of the magistrate was besieged by a suppliant crowd. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxxiv, I had..seen the followers of this man commit a cruel slaughter on an unarmed and suppliant individual. 1859 Tennyson Guinevere 656 She look'd and saw The novice, weeping, suppliant. |
b. transf. Expressing or involving supplication.
| 1667 Milton P.L. i. 112 To bow and sue for grace With suppliant knee. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 775 With Vows and suppliant Pray'rs. 1767 Wilkes Corr. (1805) III. 193 Was it possible for me after this to write a suppliant letter to lord Chatham? 1800 Wordsw. Hart-leap Well 22 With suppliant gestures. 1870 Bryant Iliad I. vi. 197 Stretched forth their suppliant hands To Pallas. |
Hence ˈsuppliantness (Bailey, vol. II. 1727).
▪ II. † suppˈliant, a.2 Obs. rare—1.
[f. supply v.1 + -ant.]
Supplying deficiencies; supplementary.
| 1611 Shakes. Cymb. iii. vii. 12 Those Legions..whereunto your leuie Must be suppliant. |
▪ III. † suppliant, a.3 Obs. rare—1.
[f. supply v.3 + -ant.]
Suppling, emollient; = supple a. 7.
| 1631 R. H. Arraignm. Whole Creature xiii. §2. 204 To thinke to heale a green wound with suppliant oyles, and yet the poysoned bullet stick still in the flesh. |