pant
verbEtymology From Middle English panten, whence also English dialectal pank. Possibly from Old French pantoyer, a byform or of Old French pantoisier (“to be breathless”) (compare modern French panteler (“to gasp for breath”)), of uncertain origin. Possibly from Vulgar Latin *pantasiō (“struggling for breath when having a nightmare”), from Ancient Greek φαντασιόω (phantasióō, “to be subject to hallucinations”), from φαντασία (phantasía, “appearance, image, fantasy”).
7 senses
- 1To breathe quickly or in a labored manner, as after…
- 2To long eagerly; to desire earnestly.
- 3To long for (something); to be eager for (something).
- 4Of the heart, to beat with unnatural violence or…
- 5To sigh; to flutter; to languish.
- 6To heave, as the breast.
- 7To bulge and shrink successively, of iron hulls, etc.
Ambitransitive To breathe quickly or in a labored manner, as after exertion or from eagerness or excitement; to respire with heaving of the breast; to gasp.
- Pluto pants for breath from out his cell.1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
- There is a cavern where my spirit / Was panted forth in anguish.1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound:
1 more example
- Charles had just slipp'd the bolt of the door, and running, caught me in his arms, and lifting me from the ground, with his lips glew'd to mine, bore me, trembling, panting, dying, with soft fears and tender wishes, to the bed1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:
To long eagerly; to desire earnestly.
- As the hart panteth after the water brooks.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 42:1:
- Anyway, one of the men who panted after Cleopatra was a Roman general named Marc Anthony, who became so enraptured with the idea of being Cleopatra’s sex slave that he set fire to Rome just to impress her.2005, Annabelle du Fouet, “The murky world from whence it all came” (chapter 2), in Weather Balloons Make Rotten Sex Toys, Ellora's Cave, →ISBN, page 35:
Obsolete To long for (something); to be eager for (something).
- Then shall our hearts pant thee.1633, George Herbert, Love:
Of the heart, to beat with unnatural violence or rapidity; to palpitate.
- Yet might her piteous heart be seen to pant and quake1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
To sigh; to flutter; to languish.
- [T]he whiſp'ring Breeze / Pants on the Leaves, and dies upon the Trees.1709 May, Alexander Pope, “Pastorals. The Fourth Pastoral, or Daphne. […]”, in Poetical Miscellanies: The Sixth Part. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 750:
To heave, as the breast.
To bulge and shrink successively, of iron hulls, etc.