volant
[voh-luh nt]
- engaged in or having the power of flight.
- moving lightly; nimble.
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- Also called volant piece. Armor. a reinforcing piece for the brow of a helmet.
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Origin of volant
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
floating, aerial, soaring, express, mobile, fleet, drifting, gliding, waving, streaming, flapping, winging, mercurial, speedy, aeronautical, airborne, avian, volant, volarExamples from the Web for volant
Historical Examples
It bore for device a Falcon volant, argent, with a fetter-lock, or.
Yorkshire BattlesEdward Lamplough
Indeed, many kinds of volant animals are endemic to the Solomons.
Systematics of Megachiropteran Bats in the Solomon IslandsCarleton J. Phillips
The difficulty of keeping so great a mass of weighty metal in so volant an attitude, has been admirably overcome by the artist.
Birds about to take wing are rising; when in flight, they are volant; when at rest, they are close.
The Handbook to English HeraldryCharles Boutell
The appeal was comprehensible, and the charioteer, assiduously obliging, fell to posture of checking none too volant steeds.
The So-called Human RaceBert Leston Taylor
volant
- (usually postpositive) heraldry in a flying position
- rare flying or capable of flight
- poetic moving lightly or agilely; nimble
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Word Origin
C16: from French: flying, from voler to fly, from Latin volāre
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for volant
adj.
"flying," c.1500, from Middle French, from Latin volantem (nominative volans), present participle of volare "to fly," of unknown origin. French voler, literally "to fly," in 16c. acquired a sense of "to steal," via the transitive meaning "to make fly."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper