provant
provant adjective: provided for common or general use, as in an army; hence, common in quality, i.e. inferior.
Adjective
provant (comparative more provant, superlative most provant)
- Provided for common or general use, as in an army; hence, common in quality, i.e. inferior.
- a poor provant rapier1598, Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Euery Man in His Humour. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act III...
Noun
provant (uncountable)
- provisions; food
- His manner is to put three or foure ſtones into a ſpoone, and ſo putting them into his mouth together, ſvvallovvs them all dovvn one after another; […] [H]aving the advantage of this ſtrange vvay of alimony, he ſold his allovvance of provant at great rates; […]1653, John Bulwer, “Scene XVIII. Strange Inventions of Certain Nations in Ordering Their Armes, Hands and Nailes.”, in Anthropometamorphosis: Man Transform’d; or, The Artificial Changling […], 2nd...
- When I want prouant wᵗʰ: Humfrie
I sup, & when benighted,
I repose in Powles wᵗʰ: waking soules,
Yet neuer am affrighted.
When I lack food, I go
without it, and when benighted,
I repose in St. Paul’s (graveyard) with ghosts,
Yet am never scared.c. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665)
Verb
provant (third-person singular simple present provants, present participle provanting, simple past and past participle provanted)
- To supply with provisions; to provide for.
- ...should not only supply her inhabitants with plentiful purveyance of sustenance, but provant and victual moreover this monstrous army of strangers […]1599, Thomas Nash, Nashes Lenten Stuffe
Forms of provant
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more provant |
| superlative | most provant |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | provants |
| present participle | provanting |
| past participle | provanted |
| past | provanted |
Questions about provant
- What does provant mean?
- Provant means provided for common or general use, as in an army; hence, common in quality, i.e. inferior.
- What part of speech is provant?
- Provant can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
Words near provant in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: provant (page history and authors). 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.
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Cite this entry: “provant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/provant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.