arrant, errand, errant, erraunt

& s. [A form of Eng. errant, from Lat, errans wandering.] A. As adjective : I. Errant, wandering, roaming in search of adventures. "Come ye to seek a champion's aid, On palfrey white, with harper hoar, Like urrant damosel of yore?" Scott : The Lady of the Lake, vi. 9. II. Pre-eminent in some quality, good or bad. † 1. In some good quality. "An arrant honest woman."--Burton. 2. In some bad quality. (1) Of persons: Notorious, manifest, thorough, downright. "This chief had been a notorious murderer, and was arrant coward to boot."- Darwin -Darwin: Voyage round an the World, chap. xviii. (2) Of things. "Weeds, arrant weeds." Cowper: Hope. (3) Used as a predicate : "Your justification is but a miserable shifting off those testimonies of the ancientest fathers alleged against you, and the authority of some synodal canons, which are now arrant to us."- Milton Animad.on Remonstrants Def. against Smectymnuus. B. As subst. A good-for-nothing fellow, a person of no reputation. ( Breton , in N.E.D. ) ăr-rant-lý, adv . [Eng. arrant ; -ly.] Shamele ly, impudently, infamously. "Funeral tears are as arrantly hired out as mourning clokes."-L'Estrange.