In mod. use poet. or rhet. Also 5 -eant, 5–6 -iaunt, 6–7 -yant. [a. F. suppliant (superseding older so(u)pleiant, -oiant), pr. pple. of supplier SUPPLY v.2
In early use sometimes stressed suppli·ant.]
A. sb. One who supplicates; a humble petitioner.
1429. Rolls of Parlt., IV. 346/2. The seide Suppliauntz doubten her of damage and prejudice.
1480. Cov. Leet Bk., 429. Albe-it your pore suppleant to his gret coste & charge hath demaunded the contentacion therof, ȝit he in no wyse can be satisfied.
1549–62. Sternhold & H., Ps. XXVIII. ii. The voice of thy supplyant heare.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 125. The blessed virgin … with her rodde loosed the bandes of her suppliant.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., I. i. 74. Heard you not what an humble Suppliant Lord Hastings was, for her deliuery?
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 917. Thy suppliant I beg, and clasp thy knees.
1738. Wesley, Ps. IV. i. God of my Righteousness Thy humble Suppliant hear.
1814. Byron, Ode Napoleon, v. The Arbiter of others’ fate A Suppliant for his own!
1848. Lytton, Harold, VIII. iii. The mother is a suppliant to the son for the son.
Comb. 1669. Dryden, Tyr. Love, IV. i. She Suppliant-like, e’re long, thy succour shall implore.
B. adj. Supplicating, humbly petitioning.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. (1912), 418. One might see by his eyes (humbly lifted up to the window where Philoclea stood) that he was rather suppliaunt, then victorious.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., III. i. 234. When she for thy repeale was suppliant.
1666. Dryden, Ann. Mirab., ccl. The Rich grow suppliant, and the Poor grow proud.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxvii. (1787), III. 46. The tribunal of the magistrate was besieged by a suppliant crowd.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxxiv. I had … seen the followers of this man commit a cruel slaughter on an unarmed and suppliant individual.
1859. Tennyson, Guinevere, 656. She look’d and saw The novice, weeping, suppliant.
b. transf. Expressing or involving supplication.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 112. To bow and sue for grace With suppliant knee.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 775. With Vows and suppliant Pray’rs.
1767. Wilkes, Corr. (1805), III. 193. Was it possible for me after this to write a suppliant letter to lord Chatham?
1800. Wordsw., Hart-leap Well, 22. With suppliant gestures.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, I. VI. 197. Stretched forth their suppliant hands To Pallas.
Hence Suppliantness (Bailey, vol. II., 1727).
