rare. [ad. (either directly or through OF. flagrance) L. flagrantia, n. of quality f. flagrant-em FLAGRANT.]
1. lit. Blazing or glowing condition.
1847. Blackw. Mag. LXI. June, 735/1. Through the rigour of winter we had been brought now to the very flagrance of the dog-star, to the time when human nature can pretend no opposition to the mood of the lordly sun.
1892. Baring-Gould, Roar of Sea, III. liii. 235. The roar overhead had increased, some vent had been found, and the attic was in full flagrance.
2. Of an offence: The quality or state of being flagrant; glaring shamefulness.
1612–5. Bp. Hall, Contempl., N. T., IV. xv. As lovers of chastity and sanctimony, and haters of uncleanness, they bring to him a woman taken in the flagrance of her adultery.
1863. Mrs. C. Clarke, Shaks. Char., xiii. 321. The shuffling sophistry and meanness of reproach with which he turns upon Hubert in this scene, throwing upon him the whole blame of a deed which he himself originally conceived, and had instigated Hubert to perpetrate, is the very flagrance and crassitude of baseness.
