suppliant
Americanadjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of suppliant
1400–50; late Middle English < Middle French, present participle of supplier < Latin supplicāre to beseech, supplicate. See -ant
Explanation
A suppliant is someone who begs or prays for something, and to be suppliant is to humbly pray or ask for forgiveness. Puppy-dog eyes can help if you’re trying to look suppliant. Like the related word supplicant, suppliant has do with praying in a humble manner. A suppliant student in the principal's office is going to have better luck avoiding detention than a disrespectful one. Suppliant is not a word you hear much these days — it was more frequently used in the days when people had to beg for everyday things, including basic needs like food and water, from monarchs and others in positions of power or authority.
Vocabulary lists containing suppliant
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Another Aeschylean drama, “The Suppliant Women,” shows King Pelasgus deferring to the Argive assembly when confronted with the Danaids’ plea for asylum.
From Salon • Apr. 13, 2025
Novelist Tarkington, one of the kindliest and most helpful writers in the busi ness, soothed and encouraged Suppliant Roberts.
From Time Magazine Archive
Suppliant, sup′li-ant, adj. supplicating: asking earnestly: entreating.—n. a humble petitioner.—adv.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
Euripides has two long descriptions of a battle, one in the Children of Heracles and one in the Suppliant Women; both are rhetorical Messenger's Speeches, conventionally well-written and without one touch that suggests personal experience.
From Euripedes and His Age by Murray, Gilbert
Such stories could be turned into high religious mysteries, as by Aeschylus in his Suppliant Women; into tender and reverent legends, as by Pindar in one or two odes.
From Euripedes and His Age by Murray, Gilbert
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
