horrent

English

Etymology

From Latin horrens, present participle of horrere (“to bristle”). See horror.

Adjective

horrent (comparative more horrent, superlative most horrent)

1. Standing upright, like bristles; bristled; bristly.
   • 1922, Charles H. Sylvester, Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7‎^[1]:

     Impregnable their front appears, All horrent with projected spears, Whose polished points before them shine, From flank to flank, one brilliant line, Bright as the breakers' splendors run Along the billows to the sun.

   • 1917, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Astrophel and Other Poems‎^[2]:

     But higher than all its horrent height of shade Shone sovereign, seen by light itself had made, Above the woes of all the world, above Life, sin, and death, his myriad-minded love.

   • 1886, A. D. Crake, The House of Walderne‎^[3]:

     Above them the rocks rose wild and horrent, apparently inaccessible, but the keen eye of our Hubert detected one path, a mere goat path, used perhaps also by shepherds.

   • 1854, William Harrison Ainsworth, The Lancashire Witches‎^[4]:

     Its wild and savage aspect, its horrent precipices, its shaggy woods, its strangely-shaped rocks and tenebrous depths, where every imperfectly-seen object appeared doubly frightful--all combined to invest it with mystery and terror.

   • 1835, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Rienzi‎^[5]:

     He was now at the spot in which his brother had left him; hastily he glanced behind, and saw the couched lance and horrent crest of the horseman close at his rear; despairingly he looked up, and behold! his brother bursting through the tangled brakes that clothed the mountain, and bounding to his succour.

References

• “horrent”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Thorner, norther

Latin

Verb

horrent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of horreō