partan

[ pahr-tn ]

/ ˈpɑr tn /

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noun Scot.

a crab.

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His boss, whom he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

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Origin of partan

1375–1425; late Middle English (Scots ) <Scots Gaelic: crab

Words nearby partan

Parsons table, Parsva, part, part. adj., partake, partan, part and parcel, part company, parted, parted per tierce, partera

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use partan in a sentence

A surfeit of partan-pie, after the triumphant termination of a law-suit, threw the burghs into a state of anarchy.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 383, September 1847|Various
Questioned again and again by his Mistress Partan as to what was amiss with him, he had given her odd and evasive answers.
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 20. July, 1877.|Various
Thereupon the Partan and Jamie Ladle jumped into a small boat and pulled out.
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 20. July, 1877.|Various
With these views he hired himself to the Partan, whose boat's crew was short-handed.
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 20. July, 1877.|Various

But the marquis found even the hen-pecked Partan a nobler and more elevating presence than any strutting platitude of Bond street.
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 20, September, 1877.|Various

British Dictionary definitions for partan

partan

/ (ˈpɑːtən, Scot ˈpartən) /

noun

a Scot word for crab 1 (def. 1), crab 1 (def. 2)

Word Origin for partan

C15: of Celtic origin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012