arrant

American  

[ar-uhnt] / ˈær ənt /

adjective

1. downright; thorough; unmitigated; notorious.

   an arrant fool.

   Synonyms:

   flagrant, confirmed, utter, thoroughgoing

2. wandering; errant.

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arrant British  

/ ˈærənt /

adjective

1. utter; out-and-out

   an arrant fool

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Other Word Forms

• arrantly adverb

Etymology

Origin of arrant

1350–1400; Middle English, variant of errant

Example Sentences

"There's no way he can stay on until October. It's arrant nonsense to think he can. Someone needs to grip this."

From Reuters

One reason for this, he posits: “The economy is a complicated system that is inherently difficult to understand, so propositions like these” — the arrant nonsense in question — “are all that saves us from intellectual nihilism.”

From New York Times

Was it not a dangerous word, too closely connected to Hobbes and to dubious stories about sympathetic magic told by Digby—someone whom John Evelyn, another early member, could dismiss as an arrant mountebank?

From Literature

The country that invented Donald Duck is the last to discover his cynicism—and what arrant cynicism it is.

From The New Yorker

Hands up: chances are you consider all of the above to be arrant poppycock.

From The Guardian