a.; also 6 arraunt, 6–7 -and(e. [A variant of ERRANT, ‘wandering, vagrant, vagabond,’ which from its frequent use in such expressions as arrant thief, became an intensive, ‘thorough, notorious, downright,’ especially, from its original associations, with opprobrious names. For the vowel-change cf. arrand = errand, Harry = Herry, Henry, FAR = earlier fer, etc.]
† 1. Wandering, itinerant, vagrant; esp. in knight arrant, bailiff arrant; in which the etymological ERRANT is now alone used.
[c. 1400. Circumcis. (Turnb., 1843), 97. To bryng the lost schepe ageyn … That was errawnt, ydyl, and in vayne.]
1550. Crowley, Epigr. (1872), 12. Title, Of Baylife Arrantes.
1557. K. Arthur (Copland), VII. x. With that knyght wyll I juste, for I see that he is a knyght arraunt.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., IX. xlvi. 217. Arrant Preachers, humming out a common-place or two.
1647. Howard, Crown Rev., 18. Bayliffe arrant. Fee.—4l. 11s. 3d.
[1691. Blount, Law Dict., Bailiffs Errant are those whom the Sheriff appoints to go up and down the County to serve Writs, etc.]
2. In Thief errant, arrant thief [= robber]: orig. an outlawed robber roving about the country, a freebooter, bandit, highwayman; hence, a public, notorious, professed robber, a ‘common thief,’ an undisguised, manifest, out-and-out thief.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Manc. T., 120. An outlawe or a thef erraunt. [See the whole passage.]
1553. Bale, Vocacyon, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), I. 362. The most errande there and mercilesse murtherer.
1563. Grafton, Chron. Hen. IV., an. 1 (R.). There is not so ranke a traytor, nor so arrant a thefe.
1637. Pocklington, Sund. no Sabb., 13. The arrantest Pharisee theefe in Jerusalem.
a. 1744. Swift, Wks., 1841, II. 79. Every servant an arrant thief as to victuals and drink.
1822. W. Irving, Braceb. Hall, xxvii. 247. Who, like errant thieves, could not hold up their heads in an honest house.
3. Hence: Notorious, manifest, downright, thorough-paced, unmitigated. Extended from thief to traitor, knave, rebel, coward, usurer; after 1575 widely used as an opprobrious intensive, with fool, dunce, ass, idiot, hypocrite, Pharisee, Papist, Puritan, infidel, atheist, blasphemer, and so on through the whole vocabulary of abuse.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. VII. 307. An erraunt vsurer.
1494. Fabyan, V. lxxx. 58. Beyng a errant Traytoure.
1538. Tunstall, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. I. xliv. 338. Reginald Pole, comen of a noble blood, and thereby the more errant traitor.
1553. Procl., ibid. III. App. vi. 10. The most arrande traytour Syr John Dudley.
c. 1588. Greene, Fr. Bacon, v. 26. Why, thou arrant dunce, shall I never make thee a good scholar?
1596. Drayton, Legends, i. 112. Which she to Sots and arrant Ideots threw.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. v. 124. Hee’s an arrant knaue.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. iii. II. (1651), 316. A nobleman therefore in some likelihood … is … a proud fool, an arrant asse.
1660. H. More, Myst. Godl., V. xiii. 168. Either an arrant Infidel or horrid Blasphemer.
1679. Mansell, Narr. Popish Plot, Addr. Who may prove good tools, though errant Fools.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, 482. They are errant cowards.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XIV. iii. (1840), 205. The arrantest villain that ever walked upon two legs.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., II. 34. As arrant a crew of scapegraces as ever were collected together.
1837. Howitt, Rur. Life, II. v. (1862), 141. The inhabitants of solitary houses are often most arrant cowards.
b. transf. of things, i.e., opprobrious deeds and qualities, theft, presumption, lie, device, etc.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, V. xxx. (1840), 301. It were arrant presumption for flesh to prescribe God his way.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., i. 9. They cover the most arrant Atheism under the mask and shadow of a Deity.
1753. Richardson, Grandison (1781), IV. xxxiv. 241. I am afraid I have written arrant nonsense.
1776. Pennant, Tour Scot., II. 327. This hill, till about the year 995, was an errant desert … and uninhabitable.
1858. Buckle, Civiliz. (1869), III. v. 480. Little better than arrant trifling.
4. Without opprobrious force: Thorough, downright, genuine, complete, ‘regular.’
1570. Levins, Manip., 25. Arrant, grandis, magnus.
1575. Turberv., Venerie, 193. Good and arrant Terriers … to make the foxe or Badgerd start the soner.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva, 95. He that shall behold its grain … will never scruple to pronounce it arrant wood.
1704. Rowe, Ulysses, Epil. 15. They Like arrant Huswives, rise by Break of Day.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., II. 59. A tight brisk little man, with the air of an arrant old bachelor.
† 5. With the opprobrious force transferred to the adj.: Thoroughly bad, good for nothing, rascally.
1581. B. Riche, Farewell (1846), 25. Her beautie had so entangled her arrant hoste.
1592. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Superer., 6. So forward to accuse, debase, revile … as the arrantest fellow in a Country?
1676. Wycherley, Plain-Dealer, III. i. Mine’s as arrant a Widow-Mother, to her poor Child, as any’s in England.
1708. Pope, Lett., Wks. 1736, V. 61. You are not so arrant a critic of the modern Poets as … to damn them without a hearing.
1761. Smollett, Gil Blas, VII. iii. It was easy to see through all his piety that he was an arrant author at the bottom.
b. as pred.
1641. Milton, Animadv. Def. Smectymn., ii. The authority of some synodal canons which are now arrant to us.
6. as sb. A person of no reputation, a good-for-nothing.
1605. Breton, Be not angry, 8. Her good-man who should be sent of errands, while she were with her arrants.
