peccant
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈpɛkənt/
Adjective

peccant

  1. (obsolete) Unhealthy; causing disease.
    • 1605, Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning
      peccant humours
  2. Sinful.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book 10”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:
      peccant angels
  3. Wrong; defective; faulty.
    • 1886, Henry James, The Bostonians.
      Olive rested her eyes for some moments upon Mrs. Luna, without speaking. Then she said: 'Your veil is not put on straight, Adeline.'
      'I look like a monster—that, evidently, is what you mean!' Adeline exclaimed, going to the mirror to rearrange the peccant tissue.
Related terms Noun

peccant (plural peccants)

  1. (obsolete) An offender.
    • 1654, Richard Whitlock, Zootomia; Or, Observations on the Present Manners of the English
      Yet this conceitednesse and Itch of being taken for a Counsellour, maketh more Reprovers, than Peccants in the world.



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