| 释义 |
▪ 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.
1429Rolls of Parlt. IV. 346/2 The seide Suppliauntz doubten hem of damage and prejudice. 1480Cov. 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. 1549–62Sternhold & H. Ps. xxviii. ii, The voice of thy supplyant heare. 1555Eden Decades (Arb.) 125 The blessed virgin..with her rodde loosed the bandes of her suppliant. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, i. i. 74 Heard you not what an humble Suppliant Lord Hastings was, for her deliuery? 1667Milton P.L. x. 917 Thy suppliant I beg, and clasp thy knees. 1738Wesley Ps. iv. i, God of my Righteousness Thy humble Suppliant hear. 1814Byron Ode to Napoleon v, The Arbiter of others' fate A Suppliant for his own! 1848Lytton Harold viii. iii, The mother is a suppliant to the son for the son.
Comb.1669Dryden Tyr. Love iv. i, She Suppliant-like, e're long, thy succour shall implore.
B. adj. Supplicating, humbly petitioning.
a1586Sidney 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. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. iii. i. 234 When she for thy repeale was suppliant. 1666Dryden Ann. Mirab. ccl, The Rich grow suppliant, and the Poor grow proud. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xxvii. (1787) III. 46 The tribunal of the magistrate was besieged by a suppliant crowd. 1818Scott Rob Roy xxxiv, I had..seen the followers of this man commit a cruel slaughter on an unarmed and suppliant individual. 1859Tennyson Guinevere 656 She look'd and saw The novice, weeping, suppliant.
b. transf. Expressing or involving supplication.
1667Milton P.L. i. 112 To bow and sue for grace With suppliant knee. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 775 With Vows and suppliant Pray'rs. 1767Wilkes Corr. (1805) III. 193 Was it possible for me after this to write a suppliant letter to lord Chatham? 1800Wordsw. Hart-leap Well 22 With suppliant gestures. 1870Bryant 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.
1611Shakes. 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.
1631R. 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. |