a. Also 6 fragraunt; see also FLAGRANT 6. [a. F. fragrant (16th c. in Godefroy) or ad. L. frāgrant-em, pr. pple. of frāgrāre to smell sweetly,] Emitting a sweet or pleasant odor, sweet-smelling.

1

1500–20.  Dunbar, ‘Now fayre, fayrest,’ 7.

        Freshe fragrant floure of fayrehede shene,
  Welcum of Scotland to be Quene!

2

1514.  Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.), xxxii.

        The fragraunt odour and oyntment of swete floure
Onely deliteth the smelling with dolour.

3

1596.  Spenser, F. Q., IV. i. 31.

          For though like withered tree, that wanteth iuyce,
  She old and crooked were, yet now of late,
  As fresh and fragrant as the floure deluce
  She was become, by chaunge of her estate,
  And made full goodly ioyance to her new found mate.

4

1667.  Milton, P. L., IV. 645.

                    Fragrant the fertil earth
After soft showers.

5

a. 1721.  Prior, Garland, ii.

        At Morn the Nymph vouchsafe to place
  Upon her Brow the various Wreath;
The Flow’rs less blooming than her Face,
  The Scent less fragrant than her Breath.

6

1871.  B. Taylor, Faust (1875), I. xxi. 178.

        The spring-time stirs within the fragrant birches,
And even the fir-tree feels it now:
Should then our limbs escape its gentle searches?

7

  fig.  1651.  Fuller’s Abel Rediv., Erasmus, 84.

        In Basil He did end his dayes,
As full of yeeres as fragrant fame,
Leaving behinde an honoured name.

8

1782.  Cowper, Conversation, 629.

        Though time will wear us, and we must grow old,
Such men are not forgot as soon as cold,
Their fragrant memory will outlast their tomb,
Embalm’d for ever in its own perfume.

9

1827.  Keble, Chr. Y., Churching, i.

          Here let him speed: to-day this hallow’d air
Is fragrant with a mother’s first and fondest prayer.

10

  Hence Fragrantly adv.; † Fragrantness.

11

1515.  Barclay, Egloges, iv. (1570), C vj/2.

        As medoes paynted with floures redolent
  The sight reioyce of suche as them beholde:
So man indued with vertue excellent
  Fragrantly shineth with beames manyfolde.

12

1555.  Abp. Parker, Ps. xxxiv. 85.

        Gods goodnes smelleth most fragrantly,
To whom who wyll themselfe betake.

13

1616.  Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 449. To keepe the aromaticall fragrantnesse in those which smell sweet.

14

1707.  J. Mortimer, Husb., 137. At such time as the Hops begin to change colour, or that they are easily pulled to pieces, or that the Seeds begin to look brown, and smell fragrantly, you may conclude them ripe.

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