volant

[voh-luh nt]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR volant ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

engaged in or having the power of flight.

moving lightly; nimble.

noun

Also called volant piece. Armor. a reinforcing piece for the brow of a helmet.

Origin of volant

1500–10; < French, present participle of voler to fly < Latin volāre; see -ant

Related formsnon·vo·lant, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for volant

floating, aerial, soaring, express, mobile, fleet, drifting, gliding, waving, streaming, flapping, winging, mercurial, speedy, aeronautical, airborne, avian, volar, volitant

Examples from the Web for volant

Historical Examples of volant

It bore for device a Falcon volant, argent, with a fetter-lock, or.
Yorkshire Battles
Edward Lamplough
Indeed, many kinds of volant animals are endemic to the Solomons.
Systematics of Megachiropteran Bats in the Solomon Islands
Carleton 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.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 487
Various
Birds about to take wing are rising; when in flight, they are volant; when at rest, they are close.
The Handbook to English Heraldry
Charles Boutell
The appeal was comprehensible, and the charioteer, assiduously obliging, fell to posture of checking none too volant steeds.
The So-called Human Race
Bert Leston Taylor

British Dictionary definitions for volant

volant

adjective

(usually postpositive) heraldry in a flying position

rare flying or capable of flight

poetic moving lightly or agilely; nimble

Word Origin for volant

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 Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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."