▪ I. clarion, n.
(ˈklærɪən)
Forms: 4 claryoun(e, -ounn(e, clarioune, 4–5 -oun, 5 -onne, claryowne, 5–6 claryon, 4– clarion.
[a. OF. claron, cleron, clairon; in med.L. clāriōn-em, clārōn-em, f. clārus clear. Italian has in same sense clarino, chiarina: cf. clarine.]
1. A shrill-sounding trumpet with a narrow tube, formerly much used as a signal in war. (Now chiefly poetical, or in historical narrative.)
| c 1325 [see 5 a.] c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame iii. 150 Blody soun In trumpe, beme and clarioun. c 1386 ― Knt.'s T. 1653 Pypes, trompes, hakerers, Clariounes That in the bataille blowen blody sounes. 1388 Wyclif Jer. iv. 21. 1475 Caxton Jason 89 Trompettes, claryons, tabours and other instruments. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xxxvi. xxiii, Many a clarion Began to blowe. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Clarion, a kind of small straight mouthed, and shrill sounding Trumpet. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 532 The warlike sound Of Trumpets loud and Clarions. a 1763 Shenstone Wks. (1764) I. 22 Fame, her clarion pendent at her side. 1871 Palgrave Lyr. Poems 138 Silver clarions menacing loudly. |
| fig. 1867 Emerson May-Day, &c. Wks. (Bohn) III. 477 Byron's clarion of disdain. |
2. Her. A bearing shaped somewhat like a clarion.
| 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Clarion, Guillim takes these Clarions to be a Kind of old-fashion Trumpet; but others think they rather represent the Rudder of a Ship, or, as some say, the Rest for a Lance. 1766 Porny Heraldry (1787) 187 Ruby, three Clarions Topaz. |
3. poet. The sound of a trumpet; any similar rousing sound, as the crowing of a cock.
| 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 443 The crested Cock whose clarion sounds The silent hours. 1728 Pope Dunc. ii. 226 The loud clarion of the braying Ass. 1750 Gray Elegy v, The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn. 1776 Mickle tr. Camoens' Lusiad 76 The trump and fyfe's shrill clarion far around The glorious music of the fight resound. 1858 Longfellow Poems, Daybreak, O Chanticleer, Your Clarion blow; the day is near. 1878 E. Jenkins Haverholme 7 That to which for long humane and Christian people had shut their ears..sounded forth with an irrepressible clarion. |
4. A four-feet organ-stop of quality of tone similar to that of the clarion.
| c 1670 Organ Specif. in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 593/1 Great Organ. 12 stops...12. Clarion. 1722–4 Ibid. II. 596/2 Choir Organ..Clarion, from Great Organ, by communication. 1876 J. Hiles Catech. Organ x. (1878) 72 Clarion, Clarin, Clarino, a Reed-stop similar to the Trumpet, but of 4 feet, both on the Manual and Pedal [of the organ]. |
5. attrib. a. Of or pertaining to a clarion.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 1210 Loude alarom vpon launde lulted was þenne..Cler claryoun crak cryed on-lofte. 1811 Scott Don Roderick lxii, Fame, with clarion blast and wings unfurled..awakes an injured World. 1838 Marg. Fuller Wom. 19th C. (1862) 358 Like the clarion-call On battlefield. |
b. Sounding like the clarion, loud and clear.
| 184. Longfellow Excelsior iv, Loud that clarion voice replied, Excelsior! 1858 Greener Gunnery 371 The Whitworth rifle..was introduced to the world with a clarion flourish from the Times. 1879 F. Harrison Choice Bks. 27 In the quaint lines of Cowper, or the clarion couplets of Pope. |
c. Comb. in clarion-voiced adj. (parasynthetic f. clarion voice: see quot. 184. in 5 b).
| 1907 Daily Chron. 16 Sept. 3/4 Good old clarion-voiced Sir Oliver. 1910 Ibid. 6 Jan. 9/5 His clarion-voiced question. |
▪ II. clarion, v. rare.
(ˈklærɪən)
[f. clarion n.]
1. intr. To blow the clarion; to give forth a clarion sound. Hence ˈclarioning vbl. n.
| c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame iii. 152 In fight and blode-sheding [v.r. -ynges] Is used gladly clarioning [v.r. -ynges]. 1886 Burton Arab. Nts. (abr. ed.) I. 19 Thou clappest thy wings and clarionest thy loudest. |
2. trans. To herald with clarion's sound.
| 1840 R. Horne Gregory VII, i. ii. (ed. 2) 15 Ere one festive day Our advent clarion. |