1650 Mercurius Politicus No. 16. 276 From Hamburgh, wee are certified, that the Swedish Generalissimo, with some other great Officers, had a high Rant lately at Stode, where they drank soundly, and committed a few State Solecismes, upon the Royall Newes of our Armies being routed in Scotland.

1657 in Misc. Sc. Hist. Soc. VII. 13 At night Craigebuii, John Ramsay [etc.]..keeped a rant in Hawthornden.

1675 in R. Thoresby Ducatus Leodiensis (1715) App. 617 In December the same Year was an Epidemick Distemper profanely called the Jolly Rant; it was a severe Cold, and violent Cough.

1703 London Gaz. No. 3944/4 The Yearly Fox and Hare Hunting, famous by the Name of Dalton Rant.

1786 R. Burns Poems 24 Thou art the life o' public haunts; But thee, what were our fairs and rants?

1816 W. Scott Black Dwarf ii, in Tales of my Landlord 1st Ser. I. 51 A rant amang the lasses, or a splore at a fair.

1876 C. C. Robinson Gloss. Words Dial. Mid-Yorks. (at cited word) The feast-days of Nidderdale localities are called rants.

1897 A. Reid Bards of Angus & Mearns 2 What rants whan lasses met to spin.

1924 J. H. Wilkinson Leeds Dial. Gloss. & Lore 173/2 Ahr Joa's been on t'rant nah for three days.

1955 New Shetlander 41 14 Dey agreed ta hae a farewell rant at Magnie's hoose on da Friday night.

1983 J. Waddington-Feather in Trans. Yorks. Dial. Soc. 83 10 Weavers and woolcombers..would turn up at work after their rant out just as if nothing had happened.

1656 Acad. Pleasure 9 (title) Tune is, Phil Porters rant.

1658 Let. 1 May in W. B. Yellow Bk. (1659) 13 Sinners in hell shall call for their mates, not to tell them stories from a play book, nor to sing some new delightfull Tunes and Songs, called such a Rant, and such a Rant, but to tell of their misfortunes.

1725 A. Ramsay Gentle Shepherd i. i. 1 How hartsome is't..To hear the Birds chirm o'er their pleasing Rants?

1790 A. Tait Poems 229 Bang up your pipes auld John McLean, Play the Scots rant.

1827 J. Barrington Personal Sketches Own Times II. 166 I think our rants and planxties would have answered just as well without either symphonies or chromatics.

1898 N. Munro John Splendid xi. 112 A tune they call ‘The Galley of the Waves’, a Stewart rant.

1915 J. Buchan Salute to Adventurers (1922) xiv. 196 There was singing..a Cavalier rant or two, and a throaty ditty of the seas.

1973 G. M. Brown Magnus v. 84 Skop the piper, sick at heart, had to sit in a corner of the barn all night making skirls and rants.

1996 Scotsman (Nexis) 18 July 16 Behind the instrumental rant, you can hear the whirr of crickets and the tide-like draw and surge of the dancers.

1652 French Occurr. No. 22. 649 They do not only report, but print it for a truth, that Admiral Van-Galen hath sunk and fir'd divers of the English ships... But to me this seems only a Rant.

1668 J. Dryden Secret-love Epil. I left my Client yonder in a rant Against the envious, and the ignorant.

1717 F. Atterbury Let. 8 Nov. in A. Pope Corr. (1956) I. 452 What I look'd upon as a Rant of Dr Barrows, I now begin to think a Serious Truth.

1742 D. Hume Ess. Moral & Polit. II. i. 8 Otway's Tragedies are rejected for the Rants of Mr. Dryden.

1787 F. Burney Diary 6 Mar. (1842) III. 346 Then broke forth one of his most flighty rants of compliments.

1800 W. Cobbett Amer. Rush-light i. 17 No Philadelphian could be duped by this miserable rant.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. vi. 139 He sometimes,..in his rants, talked with Norman haughtiness of the Celtic barbarians.

1885 Dict. National Biogr. IV. 254/1 A portion of that fine madness which he threw out in Hotspur's famous rant about glory.

1949 Mod. Lang. Notes 64 263 He produces in turn a rant, a conventional denunciation of Fortune, and an allegory, all with puzzling effect.

1995 Private Eye 25 Aug. 11/1 There is also a rant about shops which sell sub-standard goods at inflated prices.

1663 S. Pepys Diary 14 Mar. (1971) IV. 73 A great rant I did give to Mr. Davis..and others about their hard usage of Michell.

1725 A. Ramsay Gentle Shepherd i. ii. 16 If canker'd Madge our Aunt Come up the Burn, she'll gie's a wicked Rant.

1692 C. Gildon Post-boy rob'd of his Mail I. iv. 37 'Tis always after a Rant in Love, necessary and natural that you fall into a Calm.

1722 D. Defoe Moll Flanders 52 So in he came, just in the same kind of Rant.

1723 D. Defoe Hist. Col. Jack (ed. 2) 244 Her former Behaviour was a kind of a Rant, or Fit.

1753 London Evening Post 23 Aug. in Hist. Jrnl. 8 25 In a Rant, [you have] call'd up the Ghost of your Predecessor to answer for his Folly and Timidity.

1801 C. Gadsden in J. Adams's Wks. (1854) IX. 579 The uncommonly extravagant ravings of our own times..still in the highest rant.

1876 C. M. Davies Unorthodox London (rev. ed.) 42 I set out one May evening to see the Tabernacle ‘on the rant’.

1919 W. Lewis Caliph's Design iv. ii. 65 To be in a state of permanent pâmoison and rant about everything.

2001 Cardozo Stud. Law & Lit. 13 111 A Jewish barber..who, when he gets his chance to speak about fighting for democracy, starts modestly, but gets swept away by his enthusiasm and also ends up in a rant.

1662 T. Jordan Cure for Tongue-Evill 4 The millions of common oathes men swore, Occasion'd this damned Covenant, As being the product of the swearers rant.

1681 R. Baxter 3rd Def. Cause of Peace 106 They are but Oratorical Flowers, that speak against none of our particular Doctrines, but are the rant of your Magisterial style.

1708 J. Philips Cyder ii. 76 Naught is heard But Din, and various Clamour, and mad Rant.

1762 Ld. Kames Elements Crit. II. xvi. 200 The following passages are pure rant.

?1774 R. Sanders Lucubrations Gaffer Graybeard II. xxxvii. 115 The Irregular Independants are composed of the lowest sort of people, who prefer rant to eloquence.

1820 W. Scott Abbot III. v. 122 He..need not plead his cause with the common-place rant of romantic passion.

1861 J. G. Holland Lessons in Life viii. 119 They strain their brains..and wear themselves out repeating the rant of their sect and the cant of their schools.

1920 D. H. Lawrence Women in Love xxii. 331 I hate Italy and her national rant.

1964 S. Bellow Herzog (1965) 81 The cant and rant of pipsqueaks about Inauthenticity and Forlornness.

1999 Mod. Philol. 97 117 His discussions of Lee's plays are refreshingly free of the stigma of the mad poet and the playwright's propensity for rant.

1673 W. Penn Wisdom Justified vi. 94 This (sayes our Adversary with a great Rant) borders upon Treason.

1733 E. Phillips Stage-mutineers i. 8 Good heroick, Madam, you would do well to save a little of that Rant and some of those Tears for our next new Tragedy.

1789 ‘A. Pasquin’ Children of Thespis in Poems II. 44 At the end of a play, Where rant and exertion by force hold the sway.

1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1744 I. 90 [Johnson:] The players, Sir, have got a kind of rant, with which they run on, without any regard either to accent or emphasis.

1794 C. Mathews Let. 28 Dec. in A. Mathews Mem. C. Mathews (1838) I. 128 I think him [sc. E. F. Cooke] a most excellent actor, and one of the finest declaimers I ever heard... His voice is extremely powerful, and he has one of the clearest rants I ever heard.

1816 Stage 29 June in Educ. Theatre Jrnl. (1977) 29 520 [The actor imagines] all the merit of tragic acting to consist in rant.

1886 Dict. National Biogr. VI. 422/2 His tragic acting was little more than rant.

1973 Times 10 Aug. 10/7 There is no trace of romantic rant in either performance.

1998 N.Y. Mag. 15 June 52/1 As the Bishop of Winchester, Paul Bentall may at times border on rant.

1647 A. Cowley Rich Rival in Mistress i They say you're angry, and rant mightily.

1664 S. Pepys Diary 6 Feb. (1971) V. 40 Which I ranted at him for when he came in.

1667 M. Poole Dialogue between Popish Priest & Protestant 70 I have heard some of your Priests ranting highly against our Translation.

1710 S. Palmer Moral Ess. Prov. 206 Children and servants must never be suffer'd to..insult and rant at one another.

1740 R. Southwell Let. in T. Carte Hist. Revol. Portugal 224 The King oftner met to chide and rant against her, than to let her understand she was married.

1798 J. Broster Castle of Beeston xxxv. 146 He did so scold and rant when he found it was me.

1836 Tait's Edinb. Mag. Jan. 34a He..ranted at them as if they had been tinselers.

1885 E. A. Abbott Francis Bacon xxix. 214 Others ranted against the King, courtiers, and Scotchmen.

1927 D. T. Lynch ‘Boss’ Tweed xiv. 175 The newspapers which Greeley ranted against were incredibly vile.

1998 Cosmopolitan (U.K. ed.) Sept. 102/3 She physically restrained her children's nanny and locked her in a room for two hours while she ranted at her.

1649 J. Harrison Nahash Redivivus 11 They use to rant it like Knights Errant when they have no enemy, but they are as submissive as Spaniels, when well cudgelled.

1664 H. More Modest Enq. Myst. Iniquity xii. 40 Those that talk at this rate rant it, and speak unintelligible riddles.

1689 R. Baxter Eng. Nonconformity xliv. 164 Perhaps [the minister] will be Drunk and Rant it with the most Prophane.

1772 J. Adams Diary 27 Oct. in New Eng. Q. 12 693 Nor did I ever turn about in the House, betray my friends, and rant it on the side of prerogative for a whole year, to get a father into a probate office.

1812 Times 23 Aug. 3/4 It must be expected that he should make as mad an Alexander as any of those who ranted it before him.

1843 C. J. Lever Jack Hinton xxvii. 186 When kings are angry, we are told by Shakespeare, Schiller, and others, that they rant it in a good royal style.

1913 G. K. Chesterton Victorian Age in Lit. (1914) i. 15 Our greatest bards and sages have often shown a tendency to rant it and roar it like true British sailors.

1657 C. Harvey Sexton in Synagogue (ed. 3) 23 Let all our sins be bury'd in the grave No longer rant and rave, As they have done, to our eternal shame.

1681 Bp. S. Parker Demonstr. Divine Authority 96 Well may they talk of immortal Pleasures, and boast themselves equal to the Gods, and rave and rant with the transport of that divine Happiness.

1703 J. Ramsay Toleration's Fence Removed 9 But let Men rant and rave as they will.

1761 J. Hanway Refl., Ess. & Medit. Life & Relig. II. 568 But may we therefore descend to the vulgar, so far as to rant and rave?

1802 Poet. Reg. (1803) 401 For him shall Russell rant and rave In hobbling rumbling lays.

1853 W. Dimond Stage Struck ii. 8 She scampers away, ranting and raving and won't hear me.

1898 S. MacManus Bend of Road 203 The mother, sure enough, raived an' ranted all over the house about it.

1947 Educ. Res. Bull. 26 67 Will he attempt to train college teachers, or will he rant and rave about the college teachers' chores?

2000 B. Robinson Smoking in Bed (2001) v. 137 If you rant and rave like I used to and you haven't got an outlet for it, people think you're a nut.

1908 E. Phillpotts Mother ii. v. 164 He ranted on at the unutterable misery of Jill, and Ruth listened patiently while Ives vented many lawless opinions.

1926 W. de la Mare Connoisseur 67 I just stood there thinking of what I might have said, but saying nothing—just let her rant on.

1952 T. Armstrong Adam Brunskill iii. 81 For the next two or three minutes..he ranted about the growing proclivity of Skewdale folk to make something out of nothing.

1961 S. Chaplin Day of Sardine viii. 164 I know a lot of people that rant on about their religion and it doesn't do any good.

1973 T. Crouse Boys on Bus i. vii. 139 Spiro Agnew had been making it hot for them, ranting about how the networks slanted the news.

1983 N. Bawden Ice House ii. iv. 73 All the same, I shouldn't have ranted on at you.

1996 Cosmopolitan (U.K. ed.) Sept. 112/1 You storm into your boss' office, ranting about the paltry size of your pay cheque.

1930 Amer. Jrnl. Nursing 30 370/1 ‘Only half-pay for three whole weeks, with double and treble expense,’ he ranted.

1992 N.Y. Times 18 Oct. ix. 8/3 ‘I want Cindy unplugged’, Mr. Leary ranted.

2003 Private Eye 5 Sept. 4/2 ‘What kind of bozo believe that Eastenders is a better programme than The Office?’ he ranted.