supplicant

American  

[suhp-li-kuhnt] / ˈsʌp lɪ kənt /

adjective

1. supplicating.

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noun

1. a suppliant.

supplicant British  

/ ˈsʌplɪkənt /

noun

1. a person who supplicates

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adjective

1. entreating humbly; supplicating

Etymology

Origin of supplicant

1590–1600; < Latin supplicant- (stem of supplicāns ), present participle of supplicāre to supplicate; see -ant; doublet of suppliant

Explanation

If you pray every night to be accepted to your dream college, you can call yourself a supplicant, or a person who asks humbly for something. A supplicant can be a fervently religious person who prays to God for help with a problem, and it can also be someone who begs earnestly for something he or she wants. A younger brother entreating his sister to be allowed in her tree house could be described as a supplicant. The Latin root word is supplicantem, "plead humbly."

Example Sentences

Supplicant, sup′li-kant, adj. supplicating: asking submissively.—n. one who supplicates or entreats earnestly.—adv.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

She flies to the Holy Altar of Reconciliation, and does not only repair thither as a Supplicant, but as an Empress, according to the very Words of St. Peter Damien, Serm. xliv.

From The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume IV Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels from Prussia thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &C. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns; but the Characters of the Principal Persons at the Several Courts. by P?llnitz, Karl Ludwig von

The first Prayer was a very odd one, it came from Athens, and desired Jupiter to increase the Wisdom and the Beard of his humble Supplicant.

From The Spectator, Volume 2. by Addison, Joseph