attendant

& s. [From Fr. attendant, pr. par. of at tendre = to attend; Ital. attend ent.] A. As adjective: I. Ordinary Language: 1. Accompanying; being present with and ministering or lending dignity to. (Applied in a literal sense to persons, or figuratively to things.) "Not to the court (replied th' attendant train), Nor mix'd with matrons to Minerva's fane: To Ilion's steepy tower she hent her way, To mark the fortunes of the doubtful day." Pope: Homer's Iliad , bk. vi., 478-481. in the reign of Henry the Seventh, fresh meat was never enten even by the the gentlemen attendant on a great Earl, except during the short interval between Midsuminer and Michael mas." - Macaulay : Hist . Eng . , ch. iii. "Why did the fiat of a God give birth To you fair Sun, and his attendant Earth?" Cowper: Tirocinium . 2. Following as a consequence of; related to, as an effect is to a cause. II. Technically : 1. Law : Dependent on or doing duty or service to. [B.] 2. Music . Attendant keys: The keys or scales on the fifth above and fifth below (or fourth above) any key-note or tonic considered in relation to the key or scale or that tonic. ( Calcott .) B. As substantive: I. Ordinary Language: 1. Of persons: (a) One who waits upon another, as a servant on a master or mistre , a courtier on a sovereign, or one of a train upon its head. "Yet the Queen, whose kindne had endeared her to her humblest attendants ," -Macaulay: Hist. Eng ., ch. xv. (b) One who waits upon a person with the view of preferring some request to him, or transacting some busine with him. "I endeavour that my reader may not wait long for my meaning: to give an attendant quick dispatch is civility." Burnet: Theory. (c) One present at a meeting or at any gathering. "He was a constant attendant at all meetings relating to charity, without contributing."- Swift . 2. Of things: A consequent, a concomitant of anything related to another, as an effect is to a cause. "He had an unlimited sense of fame, the attendant of noble spirits, which prompted him to engage in travels."-Pope. "It is hard to take into view all the attendants or consequents that th will be concerned in a question." Watts. II. Law : A person who owes a duty or service to another, or in some way depends upon him. ( Cowel .) at-těnd'-ěd, pa. par. [ATTEND.]