gallant
Part of speech: adj
noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: nautical
transport
Etymology: From Middle English galant, galaunt, from Old French galant (“courteous; dashing; brave”), present participle of galer (“to rejoice; make merry”), from gale (“pomp; show; festivity; mirth”); either from Frankish *wala (“good, well”), a variant form of *wela, from Proto-Germanic *wela (whence well), from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose, wish”); or alternatively from Frankish *gail (“merry; mirthful; proud; luxuriant”), from Proto-Germanic *gailaz (“merry; excited; luxurious”), related to Dutch geil (“horny; lascivious; salacious; lecherous”), German geil (“randy; horny; lecherous; wicked”), Old English gāl (“wanton; wicked; bad”).
Inflected forms:
form: more gallant
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most gallant
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: gallaunt
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: gallants
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: gallaunt
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: gallants
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: gallanting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: gallanted
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: gallanted
pos: verb
tags: past
form: gallaunt
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: Brave, valiant, courteous, especially with regard to male attitudes towards women.
pos: adj
examples: That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds.
It is plain that the great majority of school children must be regarded, from the physical standpoint, as decidedly gallant little persons, who have wrestled through their infancy and have managed to come out of tribulations that have killed a large proportion of all the children of their birth-years.
gloss: Honorable.
pos: adj
examples: Captain Edward Carlisle[…]felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze,[…]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
gloss: Grand, noble.
pos: adj
gloss: Showy; splendid; magnificent; gay; well-dressed.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: This town is built in a very gallant place.
our royal, good and gallant ship
gloss: A fashionable young man who is polite and attentive to women.
pos: noun
tags: dated
examples: PROSPERO: […] this gallant which thou see'st / Was in the wrack; and but he's something stain'd / with grief,—that beauty's canker,—thou mightst call him / A goodly person […]
gloss: One who woos, a lover, a suitor, a seducer.
pos: noun
examples: […] they were discovered in a very improper manner by the husband of the gypsy, who, from jealousy it seems, had kept a watchful eye over his wife, and had dogged her to the place, where he found her in the arms of her gallant.
The ignominy of that whisper'd tale / About a midnight gallant, seen to climb / A window to her chamber neighbour'd near, / I will from her turn off, and put the load / On the right shoulders; on that wretch's head, […]
gloss: A topgallant.
pos: noun
gloss: To attend or wait on (a lady).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: to gallant ladies to the play
During this period, we were the lions of the neighbourhood; and, no doubt, strangers from the distant villages were taken to see the "Karhowrees" (white men), in the same way that countrymen, in a city, are gallanted to the Zoological Gardens.
gloss: To handle with grace or in a modish manner.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: to gallant a fan
gloss: To conduct, escort, convey.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: ... and the canoes of Vivenza, locking their yard-arms into those of the vanquished, very courteously gallanted them into their coral harbors.
gloss: To behave in a gallant fashion; to act the gallant.
pos: verb
examples: How different is the young, fun-loving, comical, quizzing, gallanting Captain Arthur Wellesley, when residing in his shooting lodge between Summerhill and Dangan, from the stern, cautious, careworn Fabius of the Peninsular war[.]
Derived words: gallanthood
gallantize
gallantly
gallantness
gallantry
gallant soldier
supergallant
ultragallant
ungallant
Translations: