pant

plural pants

1. A quick breathing; a catching of the breath; a gasp: the panting of animals such as a dog with their tong hung out- as a form of thermoregulation.
2. figurativelyEager longing.

   Indeed, the projections, cravings, and everyday frolics common to trysts among buzz-activist Hollywood stars and starlets, plus their many common folk imitators, go forward with eager pant.

   1995, John C. Leggett, Suzanne Malm, The Eighteen Stages of Love, page 9

3. obsoleteA violent palpitation of the heart.

   To this great fairy I'll commend thy acts, / Make her thanks bless thee. O thou day o' the world, / Chain mine arm'd neck; leap thou, attire and all; / Through proof of harness to my heart, and there / Ride on the pants triumphing.

   c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene viii], page 360, column 2

present singular third person pants · participle present panting · participle past panted · past panted

1. ambitransitiveTo breathe quickly or in a labored manner, as after exertion or from eagerness or excitement; to respire with heaving of the breast; to gasp.

   Pluto pants for breath from out his cell.

   1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   There is a cavern where my spirit / Was panted forth in anguish.

   1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound

   Charles had just slipp'd the bolt of the door, and running, caught me in his arms, and lifting me from the ground, with his lips glew'd to mine, bore me, trembling, panting, dying, with soft fears and tender wishes, to the bed

   Fanny Hill

   1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: gasp

2. intransitiveTo long eagerly; to desire earnestly.

   As the hart panteth after the water brooks.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 42:1

   1 more example

   Anyway, one of the men who panted after Cleopatra was a Roman general named Marc Anthony, who became so enraptured with the idea of being Cleopatra’s sex slave that he set fire to Rome just to impress her.

   2005, Annabelle du Fouet, “The murky world from whence it all came” (chapter 2), in Weather Balloons Make Rotten Sex Toys, Ellora's Cave, →ISBN, page 35

   Synonyms: crave, desire, long, pine

3. obsoletetransitiveTo long for (something); to be eager for (something).

   Then shall our hearts pant thee.

   1633, George Herbert, Love

   Synonyms: crave, desire, long for, pine for

4. intransitiveOf the heart, to beat with unnatural violence or rapidity; to palpitate.

   Yet might her piteous heart be seen to pant and quake

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

   Synonyms: palpitate, pound, throb

5. intransitiveTo sigh; to flutter; to languish.

   [T]he whiſp'ring Breeze / Pants on the Leaves, and dies upon the Trees.

   1709 May, Alexander Pope, “Pastorals. The Fourth Pastoral, or Daphne. […]”, in Poetical Miscellanies: The Sixth Part. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 750

6. intransitiveTo heave, as the breast.
7. intransitiveTo bulge and shrink successively, of iron hulls, etc.

plural pants

1. fashionA pair of pants (trousers or underpants).

   To commemorate our 50th anniversary we've rolled out a new pant with our signature blue and white seams.

2. attributiveOf or relating to pants.

   pant leg

3. colloquialnonstandardA leg on a pair of trousers.

   he rolled up one of the black trouser pants on his left leg and searched for a vein.

   2012, Thaddeus Deluca, At Bully Hills, XLibrisUS, page 246

plural pants

1. Scotland and northeast EnglandAny public drinking fountain.

1. A river in Essex, England, which forms the upper part of the Blackwater.
2. A locality in Austwick parish, North Yorkshire, England.
3. A village in Llanymynech and Pant parish, Shropshire, England, on the border with Wales (OS grid ref SJ2722).
4. A locality in Ayrshire, Scotland.
5. A place in Wales:
   1. A hamlet in Llandegla community, Denbighshire (OS grid ref SJ2052).
   2. A hamlet in Caerwys community, Flintshire (OS grid ref SJ1474).
   3. A hamlet in Botwnnog community, Gwynedd (OS grid ref SH2132).
   4. A village and community in Merthyr Tydfil borough (OS grid ref SO0609).
   5. A hamlet in Dwyriw community, Powys (OS grid ref SJ0400).
   6. A settlement in Gresford community, Wrexham borough (OS grid ref SJ3555).
   7. A settlement in Rhosllanerchrugog community, Wrexham borough (OS grid ref SJ2945).

plural Pants

1. A surname.