Obs. Also 7 vant. [Independent use of the prefix VANT-, VAUNT-. Cf. F. avant fore part.]
1. A front part or portion. rare.
In the first quot. with reference to the face.
1589. ? Lyly, Pappe w. Hatchet, C iiij b. Take awaie this beard, and giue mee a pikede vaunt, Martin sweares by his ten bones.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., Prol. 27. Our Play Leapes ore the vaunt and firstlings of those broyles, Beginning in the middle.
2. The van of an army.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., IV. vi. 9. Go charge Agrippa, Plant those that haue reuolted in the Vant.
1623. Bingham, Xenophon, 59. Cherisophus led the Vaunt, Xenophon and the Reare-Commanders brought vp the Reare.
1624. Donne, Devot. (ed. 2), 380. When an Army marches, the vaunt may lodge to night, where the Reare comes not till to morrow.