▪ I. deferent, a.1 and n.
(ˈdɛfərənt)
Also 5–7 different, 6 defferent.
[a. F. déférent (Paré 16th c.), or immed. ad. L. dēferent-em, pr. pple. of dēfer-re to carry down or away.]
A. adj. Carrying or conveying down or to a particular destination.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva Argt. to §221, etc., The Figures of Pipes, or Concaues, thorow which Sounds passe; or the other Bodies different; conduce to the Variety and Alteration of the Sounds. 1686 Snape Anat. Horse i. xxiii. 47 These deferent Vessels are two, one on each side. 1877 Huxley Anat. Inv. Anim. vii. 378 The..testes end in a pair of deferent ducts. |
B. n.
1. A carrying or conducting agent; spec. in Phys., a canal or duct for conveying fluids.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §133 Though Aire be the most favourable Deferent of Sounds. Ibid. §217 All of them are dull and unapt Deferents except the Air. 1730–6 Bailey (folio), Deferents, those vessels of the body appointed for the conveyance of humours from one part to another. |
2. In the Ptolemaic astronomical system: The circular orbit of the centre of the epicycle in which a planet was conceived to move: corresponding (roughly) to the actual orbit of the planet. Cf. epicycle 1.
| 1413 Lydg. Pilgr. Sowle v. i. 70 Within eueryche of these seuen speres, there was a Cercle embelyfyng som what..whiche Cercle clepeth the different. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. xv. (ed. 7) 306 The Circle that carrieth the Moon, called her Defferent. 1690 Leybourn Cursus Math. 757 The Semidiametre of the Deferent..is equal to 56½ Semidiametres of the Earth. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. s.v., The two points where the Epicicle intersects the Deferent are called the Points of the greatest Elongation. 1834 Nat. Philos., Hist. Astron. vi. 31/2 (Useful Knowl. Soc.), He [Ptolemy] himself considered his system of deferents and epicycles merely as a means of determining mathematically the positions of the heavenly bodies for any given time. |
3. One who reports a matter; the communicator of a notice.
| 1670 Evelyn in Phil. Trans. V. 1056, I communicate to them, through your hands, not only the Instrument..but the Description of the Use and Benefit of it from such a Deferent, as I am sure they will very highly value. 1671 ― Mem. (1857) III. 238 Unless you approve of what I write, and assist the deferrent, for I am no more. |
▪ II. deferent, a.2
(ˈdɛfərənt)
[f. defer v.2, and deference: see -ent.]
Showing deference, deferential.
| 1822 Blackw. Mag. XI. 167 His opposition..was always modest, deferent. 1856 Miss Mulock J. Halifax (ed. 17) 413 Never in all his life had Guy been so deferent, so loving, to his father. 1886 Mallock Old Order Changes ii. vii, Easiness and want of deferent distance in his manner. |