Definition of "pant"

pant¹

/pænt/

noun
plural pants
1. A quick breathing; a catching of the breath; a gasp: the panting of animals such as a dog with their tong hung out- as a form of thermoregulation.
2. (figurative) Eager longing.
  Quotations
  Indeed, the projections, cravings, and everyday frolics common to trysts among buzz-activist Hollywood stars and starlets, plus their many common folk imitators, go forward with eager pant.
  1995, John C. Leggett, Suzanne Malm, The Eighteen Stages of Love, page 9
3. (obsolete) A violent palpitation of the heart.
  Quotations
  To this great fairy I'll commend thy acts, / Make her thanks bless thee. O thou day o' the world, / Chain mine arm'd neck; leap thou, attire and all; / Through proof of harness to my heart, and there / Ride on the pants triumphing.
  c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene viii], page 360, column 2
verb
third-person singular simple present pants, present participle panting, simple past and past participle panted
1. (transitive, intransitive) 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.
  Quotations
  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, […]
  There is a cavern where my spirit / Was panted forth in anguish.
  1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound
  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 bed
  1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […]
2. (intransitive) To long eagerly; to desire earnestly.
  Quotations
  As the hart panteth after the water brooks.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Psalms 42:1
  1733–1737, Alexander Pope, [Imitations of Horace], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley [et al.]
3. (transitive, obsolete) To long for (something); to be eager for (something).
  Quotations
  Then shall our hearts pant thee.
  1633, George Herbert, Love
4. (intransitive) Of the heart, to beat with unnatural violence or rapidity; to palpitate.
  Quotations
  Yet might her piteous heart be seen to pant and quake
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
5. (intransitive) To sigh; to flutter; to languish.
  Quotations
  [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, […], page 750
6. (intransitive) To heave, as the breast.
7. (intransitive) To bulge and shrink successively, of iron hulls, etc.

pant²

/pænt/

noun
plural pants
1. (fashion) A pair of pants (trousers or underpants).
2. (used attributively as a modifier) Of or relating to pants.

pant³

/pænt/

noun
plural pants
1. (Scotland and northeast England) Any public drinking fountain.

Definition of "pant"

pant1

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pant2

noun

pant3

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pant¹

pant²

pant³