a. (sb.) [ad. L. surgentem, surgens, pr. pple. of surgĕre to rise: see SURGE v.]
1. Rising or swelling in waves, or as a flood or spring; surging. lit. and fig.
a. 1592. Greene, Alphonsus, I. Wks. (Rtldg.), 226/1. When the surgent seas Have ebb’d their fill, then waves do rise again.
1854. Sala, Dutch Pict., vii. Her voice is melancholy and tristfully surgant [sic].
1887. Meredith, Ballads & P., 151. The surgent springs Of recollections.
1896. G. A. Smith, Bk. Twelve Prophets, I. 105. Such sentences reveal a Deity who is not only manifest Character, but surgent and importunate Feeling.
b. gen. Rising, ascending.
1885. G. Macdonald, Diary Old Soul, Oct., 31. My surgent thought shoots lark-like up to thee.
2. Geol. Applied by H. D. Rogers to the fifth of his fifteen divisions of the palæozoic formations in the Appalachian chain, synonymous with the Clinton group of N. America, and partly corresponding to the Middle Silurian of Europe.
1858. H. D. Rogers, Geol. Pennsylv., I. 106.
† B. sb. One who (or that which) rises in rebellion or opposition; cf. insurgent. Obs. rare–1.
1657. F. Cockin, Div. Blossomes, 107. If thou art spoused unto Christ, O soul, each surgent I’ll controule.
