rampant
English
Alternative forms
- rampaunt (obsolete)
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English rampand, rampend, present participle of (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English rampen (“to rise by climbing, shoot up, sprout, sty, ascend”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French ramper (“to creep, climb”) (see below), equivalent to ramp + -and or ramp + -ant. Recorded since 1382, "standing on the hind legs" (as in heraldry), later, "fierce, ravenous" (1387). Compare Scots rampand (“rampant”).
Alternatively from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English *rampant (not found), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French rampant, the present participle of ramper (“to creep, climb”), equivalent to ramp + -ant. Old French ramper derives from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Frankish *rampōn, *hrampōn (“to hook, grapple, climb”), from *rampa, *hrampa (“hook, claw, talon”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *hrempaną (“to curve, shrivel, shrink, wrinkle”). More at ramp.
Pronunciation
Adjective
rampant (comparative more rampant, superlative most rampant)
- (originally) Rearing on both hind legs with the forelegs extended.
- The Vienna riding school displays splendid rampant movement.
- (heraldry) Rearing up, especially on its hind leg(s), with a foreleg raised and in profile.
- 1846, Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado
- ‘I forget your coat of arms.’
‘A human foot d’or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel.’
- ‘I forget your coat of arms.’
- (Can we date this quote?), Thomas Hardy, The Well-Beloved
- little pieces of moustache on his upper lip, like a pair of minnows rampant
- 1846, Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado
- (architecture) Tilted, said of an arch with one side higher than the other, or a vault whose two abutments are located on an inclined plane.
- Unrestrained or unchecked, usually in a negative manner.
- Weeds are rampant in any neglected garden.
- 2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist[1], volume 100, number 2, page 87:
- Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat.
- 2013, Phil McNulty, "Man City 4-1 Man Utd", BBC Sport, 22 September 2013:
- In contrast to the despair of his opposite number, it was a day of delight for new City boss Manuel Pellegrini as he watched the rampant Blues make a powerful statement about their Premier League ambitions.
- Rife, or occurring widely, frequently or menacingly.
- There was rampant corruption in the city.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Further reading
- “rampant”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “rampant”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “rampant”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
French
Pronunciation
Verb
rampant
Adjective
rampant (feminine rampante, masculine plural rampants, feminine plural rampantes)
- (heraldry) rampant
- (architecture) tilted
- humbly inclined
- (botany) extending over the ground rather then climbing upward
- (literature) base; common
- (military) stranded on the ground as opposed to flying staff
Further reading
- “rampant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Old French
Adjective
rampant m (oblique and nominative feminine singular rampant or rampante)
Declension
Descendants
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms suffixed with -and
- English terms suffixed with -ant
- English terms derived from Frankish
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/æmpənt
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- en:Heraldry
- en:Architecture
- English terms with quotations
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French non-lemma forms
- French present participles
- French lemmas
- French adjectives
- fr:Heraldry
- fr:Architecture
- fr:Botany
- fr:Literature
- fr:Military
- Old French lemmas
- Old French adjectives
- fro:Heraldry