sb. and a. [f. L. commūnicānt-em, pr. pple. of commūnicāre to COMMUNICATE: so F. communiquant.]
A. sb.
1. One who partakes of or receives the Holy Communion; one who communicates (see COMMUNICATE v. 6).
1552. Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion. The Communicantes kneelynge shoulde receyue the holye Communion.
1579. Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 469. What the priest shall doe when there are no communicants.
1602. T. Fitzherb., Apol., 47 a. His body is offred, and ministred to the communicants.
1735. Wesley, Wks., I. I … administered the Lord’s supper to six or seven communicants.
1884. R. W. Dale, Manual Cong. Princ., III. i. 124. The sacramental act … is completed when the communicants receive both the bread and the cup.
b. One who habitually communicates.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. x. 236. There are little less than 1500 Communicants in that Parish.
1888. Ch. Times, 13 July, 613. The existing state of the communicant roll in the Anglican Churches.
† 2. A member of a household (? or community).
1577. Harrison, England, II. xiii. (1877), I. 259. In … most great market townes, there are … three hundred or foure hundred families or mansions, and two thousand communicants … [in country districts] we find not often aboue fortie or fiftie households, and two hundred communicants.
3. One who, or that which, communicates (in various senses): e.g., a. one who imparts; b. one who imparts information, makes a communication; c. one who holds communion or converse.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxxviii. § 8. Communicants of special infused grace.
1847. Grote, Greece, II. xxix. (1862), III. 64. The voice was the only communicant.
1881. Daily Tel., 21 June, 6/8. Investigations undertaken by the Russian police at the suggestion of an anonymous communicant.
B. adj. (rare.)
1. Sharing, participating; having a part in common; † Numbers communicant: numbers having a common factor.
1557. Recorde, Whetst., L iij b. If the remainer, and the roote in the quotiente, bee nombers communicante, diuide them so.
1593. Bilson, Govt. Christ’s Ch., 16. To be … communicant with him in his roiall dignitie.
1839–48. Bailey, Festus, xix. 215. And nature make communicant of Heaven.
1870. Bowen, Logic, v. 115. Two communicant or overlapping Genera.
2. Having or furnishing communication.
1703. W. Cowper, in Phil. Trans., XXIII. 1391. The Communicant branches of the Arteries.
3. Partaking of the Communion; being a communicant (see A. 1), in communion with the church.
1834. Fonblanque, Engl. under 7 Admin. (1837), III. 9. What will become of the poor who are now communicant with the Church?
1866. Ch. Times, 10 Feb. Forty thousand English communicant Churchmen.
