pant
UK/pænt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/pant/
pant noun: 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.
Noun (1)
pant (plural pants)
- 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.
- Eager longing.
- 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
- A violent palpitation of the heart.
- 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 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
Verb
pant (third-person singular simple present pants, present participle panting, simple past and past participle panted)
- 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
- Synonyms:
- gasp
- 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
- 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.
Noun (2)
pant (plural pants)
- A pair of pants (trousers or underpants).
- To commemorate our 50th anniversary we've rolled out a new pant with our signature blue and white seams.
- Of or relating to pants.
- pant leg
- A leg on a pair of trousers.
- he rolled up one of the black trouser pants on his left leg and searched for a vein.2012, Thaddeus Deluca, At Bully Hills, XLibrisUS, page 246
Noun (3)
pant (plural pants)
- Any public drinking fountain.
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Pant
Pant
- A river in Essex, England, which forms the upper part of the Blackwater.
- A locality in Austwick parish, North Yorkshire, England.
- A village in Llanymynech and Pant parish, Shropshire, England, on the border with Wales (OS grid ref SJ2722).
- A locality in Ayrshire, Scotland.
- A hamlet in Llandegla community, Denbighshire (OS grid ref SJ2052).
- A hamlet in Caerwys community, Flintshire (OS grid ref SJ1474).
- A hamlet in Botwnnog community, Gwynedd (OS grid ref SH2132).
- A village and community in Merthyr Tydfil borough (OS grid ref SO0609).
- A hamlet in Dwyriw community, Powys (OS grid ref SJ0400).
- A settlement in Gresford community, Wrexham borough (OS grid ref SJ3555).
- A settlement in Rhosllanerchrugog community, Wrexham borough (OS grid ref SJ2945).
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Pant
Pant (plural Pants)
- A surname.
pant meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
pant in Tamil
- கால் சட்டை, காற்சட்டை, மூச்சுத் திணறல், கால்சட்டைகள்
pant in Marathi
- to pant, gasp; breathe in a quick or labored manner
- श्वास लागणे śvās lāgṇe
pant in Urdu
- ہچکی, پتلون, ہانپنا, سانس چڑھنا
pant in Bengali
- হাঁপানো, ঘনঘন শ্বাস নেওয়া
More languagesFewer languages
- pant in Telugu
- పాంట్
- pant in Malayalam
- കിതയ്ക്കുക kitaykkuka
- pant in Kannada
- ಬಿಕ್ಕು, ಏದು, ಏದುಸಿರು, ಮೇಲುಸಿರು
- pant in Odia
- ପାନ୍ତ
- pant in Sanskrit
- प्रोथति próthati
- pant in Nepali
- पान्ट, पान्ट गर्न
- pant in Tagalog
- paghingal, hingalin
- pant in Malay
- ngah, mengah
- pant in Persian
- رخیدن raxidan
Examples of pant in a sentence
- Past the finish line, she doubled over panting, her hair astream with sweat.
- He gave me a last lingering kiss that made my toes curl and left me panting.
- Aislyn presses back against her house’s front door, panting a little with an incipient panic attack.
Synonyms of pant
Forms of pant
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | pants |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | pants |
| present participle | panting |
| past participle | panted |
| past | panted |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Pants |
Origin of pant
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”).
Back-formation from pants.
Unknown.
Words formed from pant
Phrases with pant
Words that rhyme with pant
18 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about pant
- What does pant mean?
- Pant means 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.
- What is pant in Tamil?
- Pant in Tamil is கால் சட்டை, காற்சட்டை, மூச்சுத் திணறல். See Pant meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is pant?
- Pant can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce pant?
- Pant is pronounced /pænt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of pant?
- The plural of pant is pants.
Words near pant in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pant (page history and authors); Pant (page history and authors); pant (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); श्वास लागणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); pant (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Pant (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pant (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); കിതയ്ക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); pant (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pant (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); प्रोथति (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); pant (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pant.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.