rampant

English

Alternative forms

• rampaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English rampand, rampend, present participle of rampen (“to rise by climbing, shoot up, sprout, sty, ascend”), from Old French ramper (“to creep, climb”) (see below), equivalent to ramp +‎ -and or ramp +‎ -ant. Recorded since 1382, "standing on the hind legs" (as in heraldry), later, "fierce, ravenous" (1387). Compare Scots rampand (“rampant”).

Alternatively from Middle English *rampant, from Old French rampant, the present participle of ramper (“to creep, climb”), equivalent to ramp +‎ -ant. Old French ramper derives from Frankish *rampōn, *hrampōn (“to hook, grapple, climb”), from *rampa, *hrampa (“hook, claw, talon”), from Proto-Germanic *hrempaną (“to curve, shrivel, shrink, wrinkle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹæm.pənt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æmpənt

Adjective

rampant (comparative more rampant, superlative most rampant)

1. (originally) Rearing on both hind legs with the forelegs extended.

   The Vienna riding school displays splendid rampant movement.

2. (heraldry) Rearing up, especially on its hind leg(s), with a foreleg raised and in profile.
   • 1846, Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado:

     ‘I forget your coat of arms.’
     ‘A human foot d’or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel.’

   • 1892, Thomas Hardy, The Well-Beloved:

     little pieces of moustache on his upper lip, like a pair of minnows rampant

3. (architecture) Tilted, said of an arch with one side higher than the other, or a vault whose two abutments are located on an inclined plane.
4. Unrestrained or unchecked, usually in a negative manner.

   Weeds are rampant in any neglected garden.

   • 2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 87:

     Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat.

   • 2012 October 28, Helen Sword, “Mutant Verbs”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on April 20, 2024, Draft‎:

     The craze for -ization — a word first employed by Charles Dickens in “Our Mutual Friend” — has been around for a very long time. The patron saint of rampant suffixization is Thomas Nashe, author of the 1593 pamphlet “Christ’s Tears Over Jerusalem.” His ebullient creations included myrmidonize, unmortalize, anthropophagize, retranquillize, cabbalize, palpabrize, superficialize and citizenize — not to mention collachrymate, assertionate and intercessionate.

   • 2013 September 22, Phil McNulty, “Man City 4-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:

     In contrast to the despair of his opposite number, it was a day of delight for new City boss Manuel Pellegrini as he watched the rampant Blues make a powerful statement about their Premier League ambitions.

6. Rife, or occurring widely, frequently or menacingly.

   There was rampant corruption in the city.

Derived terms

Related terms

• ramp
• rampage

Translations

Adverb

rampant (comparative more rampant, superlative most rampant)

1. (informal, nonstandard) Rampantly.

   Things seem to be running rampant around here lately.

Further reading

• “rampant”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “rampant”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “rampant”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• man-trap, mantrap

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁɑ̃.pɑ̃/

Participle

rampant

1. present participle of ramper

Adjective

rampant (feminine rampante, masculine plural rampants, feminine plural rampantes)

1. (heraldry) rampant
2. (architecture) tilted
3. humbly inclined
4. (botany) extending over the ground rather than climbing upward
5. (literature) base; common
6. (military) stranded on the ground as opposed to flying staff

Further reading

• “rampant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Old French

Adjective

rampant m (oblique and nominative feminine singular rampant or rampante)

1. (heraldry) rampant

Declension

Descendants

• → English: rampant
• French: rampant

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French rampant.

Adjective

rampant m or n (feminine singular rampantă, masculine plural rampanți, feminine and neuter plural rampante)

1. rampant

Declension