libant

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lībāns, present participle of lībō (“to taste, touch”).

Adjective

libant (comparative more libant, superlative most libant)

1. (poetic) Sipping; touching lightly.
   • 1798 July, Walter Savage Landor, “Book VI”, in Gebir; a Poem: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxforshire: […] Slatter and Munday; and sold by R. S. Kirby, […], published 1803, →OCLC, page 107:

     While thus she spake, / She toucht his eye-lashes with libant lip / And breath'd ambrosial odours; […]

   • 1901 May, Eleanor Booth Simmons, “In May”, in The Bookman, volume 13, number 3, New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, page 252:

     What delicate odours are blown abroad, caught by the libant wind / From the springing wheat on yonder slope, from the alden grove behind!

   • 1901, [Louis Eilshemius], “Love: Sweet Recollections”, in Poetical Works of Louis M. Elshemus, First series, New York: The Abbey Press Publishers, page 264:

     The libant libellula darts to the bush / Where safe it sippeth from the laurel’s chaste

Further reading

• “libant”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Balint

Latin

Verb

lībant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of lībō