influent, a. (n.)
(ˈɪnfluːənt)
[ad. L. influent-em, pres. pple. of influĕre to flow in: cf. F. influent (16th c. in Godef. Compl.).]
A. adj.
1. a. Flowing in (in early use in astrological sense).
| 1471 Ripley Comp. Alch. Ep. iii. in Ashm. (1652) 114 Phebus it smiteth with his Heate influent. 1513 Douglas æneis xii. Prol. 42 [The sun] Defundand fra hys sege etheriall Glaid influent aspectis celicall. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 113 By [wearing] them the afflicted place receiveth a double relief; first, it resisteth the influent humors. 1635 Heywood Hierarch. v. 274 Stars, luminous and cleare..full of influent vertue. a 1705 Ray Creation ii. (1714) 277 The refluent Blood..is a Pondus to the influent Blood. a 1800 Cowper tr. Milton's Elegies i. 9 Where Thames, with influent tide, My native city laves. 1883 Harper's Mag. Oct. 713/2 One of the influent streams. |
b. transf. and fig.
| c 1445 Lydg. Testament in Min. Poems (1840) 241, I now purpoose, by thy grace influent, To write a tretys. c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 1096 Þe hey and nobyll Inflventt grace of..Iesus. 1739 J. Huxham Fevers ii. (1750) 26 The Constitution of the Solids and Fluids..may be so far depressed as to bring on the low Influent, or slow nervous Fever. 1839 Bailey Festus xix. (1852) 277 Born Of effluent or influent Deity. 1890 J. Pulsford Loyalty to Christ I. 331 Living through God's influent life. |
2. Exercising celestial or astral influence or occult power. arch.
| 1430–40 Lydg. Bochas ix. Envoye, An heuenli signe bi Influent pourueiaunce Sent from aboue to shewe Edwardis riht. 1613 Heywood Braz. Age Wks. 1874 III. 217 If the Moones spheare can any helpe infuse, Or any influent Starre. 1615 Chapman Odyss. Ep. Ded. 46 As th' influent stone..Lifts high the heavy iron. 1856 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh i. 625 Multitudinous mountains..panting from their full deep hearts Beneath the influent heavens. 1922 T. Hardy Late Lyrics 93 No influent star endeared me, Unknown, unrecked, unproved! |
† 3. Exercising (mental, moral, or physical) influence on, upon; influential. Obs.
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. 89 So tumultuous were the disordered Souldiers, and the occasions of revenge and quarrellings so influent. 1654 W. Mountague Devout Ess. ii. ix. §2. 174 [Humility] is more operative and influent upon others, then any other vertue. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. viii. iii. §6, I finde no office..assigned unto Dr. Cox..who was vertually influent upon all. 1657 W. Morice Coena quasi κοινὴ Def. xiii. 178 The old may have the same effects influent on our times. |
B. n.
1. A river or stream which flows into another or into a lake; a tributary, an affluent.
| 1859 R. F. Burton Centr. Afr. in Jrnl. Geog. Soc. XXIX. 116 The Rumuma river..a southern influent or a bifurcation of the Mukondokwa. 1881 Academy 21 May 366/3 One of the largest influents of the Zambesi. |
2. Ecology. An organism which affects the ecological balance of a plant or animal community.
| 1926 V. E. Shelford in Ecology VII. 389 Professor [F. E.] Clements kindly suggested the term influent to cover those organisms which have important relations in the biotic balance and interaction. 1935 [see biome]. 1938 Weaver & Clements Plant Ecol. (ed. 2) xviii. 478 It is more convenient to employ a distinct term and call them [sc. animals] influents in reference to their abundance and corresponding importance. |