• IPA: /ˈɡælənt/

gallant

1. brave, valiant.
   • c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene i]:

     That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds.

2. honorable.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314 ↗, page 0105 ↗:

     Captain Edward Carlisle […] felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, […]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.

3. Grand, noble.
4. (obsolete) Showy; splendid; magnificent; gay; well-dressed.

   • The town is built in a very gallant place.

   • 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene i]:

     our royal, good and gallant ship

• gallantly
• gallantry

• French: brave
• Italian: valoroso
• Russian: хра́брый
• Spanish: gallardo, valiente

• Italian: galante, gentiluomo, cavaliere
• Russian: гала́нтный
• Spanish: cortés

• (RP) IPA: /ɡəˈlænt/, /ˈɡælənt/
• (America) IPA: /ɡəˈlɑnt/, /ˈɡælənt/

gallant

1. Polite and attentive to ladies; courteous to women; chivalrous.

• Italian: galante
• Portuguese: galante

gallant (plural gallants)

1. (dated) A fashionable young man who is polite and attentive to women.
   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 1 scene 2

     PROSPERO: […] this gallant which thou see'st / Was in the wrack; and but he's something stain'd /with grief,—that beauty's canker,—thou mightst call him / A goodly person […]

2. One who woos, a lover, a suitor, a seducer.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

     […] they were discovered in a very improper manner by the husband of the gypsy, who, from jealousy it seems, had kept a watchful eye over his wife, and had dogged her to the place, where he found her in the arms of her gallant.

   • 1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, Act III, Scene II, verses 140-143

     The ignominy of that whisper’d tale / About a midnight gallant, seen to climb / A window to her chamber neighbour’d near, / I will from her turn off, […]

3. (nautical) topgallant

• Italian: damerino
• Russian: све́тский челове́к

gallant (gallants, present participle gallanting; past and past participle gallanted)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To attend or wait on (a lady).

   to gallant ladies to the play

2. (obsolete, transitive) To handle with grace or in a modish manner.

   to gallant a fan

1. Surname