suppliant

comparative more suppliant · superlative most suppliant

1. Entreating with humility; supplicant.

   to bow and sue for grace with suppliant knee

   1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   Some plaques formed part of a mosaic that covered human life with its varied scenes of peace and war. Here we have warriors, the Cretan erect, and his darker-skinned enemy prostrate and suppliant.

   1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 20

   Oedipus, King of my country, you can see our ages who are before your door; some it may be too young for such a journey, and some too old, Priests of Zeus such as I, and these chosen young men; while the rest of the people crowd the market-places with their suppliant branches, for the city stumbles towards death, hardly able to raise up its head

   1928, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, Sophocles’ King Oedipus: A Version of the Modern Stage, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC

2. Supplying; auxiliary.

   your levy Must be suppliant

   1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vii]

plural suppliants

1. One who pleads or requests earnestly.

   I touch your beard as a suppliant, embrace your knees, imploring you to have pity on my wretchedness.

   1963, Philip Vellacott, transl., Medea, Penguin Classics, translation of original by Euripides, page 39

   3 more examples

   In reuerence therefore of the hopes vvhich the Grecians haue repoſed in you, and of the preſence of Iupiter Olympius, in vvhoſe Temple here, vve are in a manner ſuppliants to you, receiue the Mitylenians into league, and ayde vs.

   1629, Thucydides, “The First Booke”, in Thomas Hobbes, transl., Eight Bookes of the Peloponnesian Warre […], London: […] Hen[ry] Seile, […], →OCLC, page 52

   [K]naves in office, partial in the vvork / Of diſtribution; lib'ral of their aid / To clam'rous importunity in rags, / But oft-times deaf to ſuppliants vvho vvould bluſh / To vvear a tatter'd garb hovvever coarſe, / VVhom famine cannot reconcile to filth; […]

   1785, William Cowper, “Book IV. The Winter Evening.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 158

   You were not wont to turn young and beautiful suppliants from your office door. What is the real reason of this professional reluctance on your part?

   1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

   Synonyms: beseecher, petitioner, supplicant