arrant
Americanadjective
-
downright; thorough; unmitigated; notorious.
an arrant fool.
- Synonyms:
- flagrant, confirmed, utter, thoroughgoing
-
wandering; errant.
adjective
Other Word Forms
- arrantly adverb
Etymology
Origin of arrant
1350–1400; Middle English, variant of errant
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"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 • Jul. 7, 2022
Or put less politely, as Mr. Rudd writes in the first sentence of his paper, “Mainstream economics is replete with ideas that ‘everyone knows’ to be true, but that are actually arrant nonsense.”
From New York Times • Oct. 1, 2021
Flawed but gifted authors high and low, from Laura Ingalls Wilder to John Muir to Mark Twain, have been lumped together with arrant racists and worse.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 28, 2018
On balance, this arrant unhipness is a good thing.
From The New Yorker • Nov. 9, 2015
“The whole thing is arrant nonsense, of course,” he said.
From "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
