fragrant, a.
(ˈfreɪgrənt)
Also 6 fragraunt; see also flagrant 6.
[a. F. fragrant (16th c. in Godefroy) or ad. L. frāgrant-em, pr. pple. of frāgrāre to smell sweetly.]
Emitting a sweet or pleasant odour, sweet-smelling.
| 1500–20 Dunbar ‘Now fayre, fayrest’ 7 Freshe fragrant floure. 1514 Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) xxxii, The fragraunt odour & oyntment of swete floure. 1596 Spenser F.Q. iv. i. 31 As fresh and fragrant as the floure-deluce She was become. 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 645 Fragrant the fertil earth After soft showers. a 1721 Prior Garland ii, The flowers less blooming than her face, The scent less fragrant than her breath. 1871 B. Taylor Faust (1875) I. xxi. 178 The springtime stirs within the fragrant birches. |
| fig. 1651 Fuller's Abel Rediv., Erasmus 84 In Basil He did end his dayes, As full of yeeres as fragrant fame. 1782 Cowper Conversation 631 Their fragrant memory will outlast their tomb. 1827 Keble Chr. Y., Churching i. This hallow'd air Is fragrant with a mother's first and fondest prayer. |
Hence
ˈfragrantly adv.;
† ˈfragrantness.
| 1515 Barclay Egloges iv. (1570) C vj/2 As medoes paynted with floures redolent The sight reioyce of suche as them beholde: So man indued with vertue excellent Fragrantly shineth with beames manyfolde. 1555 Abp. Parker Ps. xxxiv. 85 Gods goodnes smelleth most fragrantly. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 449 To keepe the aromaticall fragrantnesse in those which smell sweet. 1707 J. Mortimer Husb. 137 As the Hops begin to change colour..and smell fragrantly, you may conclude them ripe. |