ostents

Noun (1)

ostent (plural ostents)

1. (archaic, rare) A display, an exhibition; an appearance, a manifestation.
   • Vſe all the obſeruance of ciuility, / Like one well ſtudied in a ſad oſtent / To pleaſe his Grandam, neuer truſt me more.c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act...
2. A boastful, ostentatious display or exhibition.

Noun (2)

ostent (plural ostents or ostenta)

1. (archaic, rare) A portent, a token.
   • We ask'd of God that some ostent might clear / Our cloudy business, who gave us sign.1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615...

Noun (3)

ostent (plural ostents)

1. (historical, obsolete) One sixtieth of an hour: a minute (60 seconds).
   • […] one would be inclined to suspect some confusion in Bede's information, seeing that 40 moments and 60 ostents both are equal to an hour. I cannot find an example of the use of ostentum as a measure of time before Bede, and it is first used as one-sixtieth of an hour in 978 A.D. by Alcuin, who...1926 [????], Roger Bacon, Opera hactenus inedita Rogeri Baconi..., page 291

See all 5 meanings of ostent