Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One despatched in advance to give notice of the approach of another or others.
- noun plural The scouts, skirmishers, or advance-guard of an army.
- To announce as by herald; herald.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A person dispatched before another person or company, to give notice of his or their approach.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A person dispatched before another person or company, to give notice of his or their approach.
Etymologies
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Examples
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The same front now glanced with many lights, some throwing far forward into the night a fixed and stationary blaze, and others hurrying from one window to another, intimating the bustle and busy preparation preceding their arrival, which had been intimated by an avant-courier.
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Thus hard pressed, the Master offered to ride forward to get matters put in such preparation as time and circumstances admitted; but the Marquis protested his kinsman must afford him his company, and would only consent that an avant-courier should carry to the desinted seneschal, Caleb
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The _avant-courier_ of the "Annuals" is of equal literary merit with its precursors; but not quite equal in its engravings -- The _Sisters '
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 288, Supplementary Number Various
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Though the Guises pressed their advantage to the utmost in forbidding all future assemblies of heretics, the tumult of Amboise was vaguely felt, in the sultry atmosphere of pent-up passions, to be the avant-courier of a terrific storm.
The Age of the Reformation Preserved Smith 1910
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Was this the _avant-courier_ of the Hudson's Bay, delayed, like ourselves, by the storm?
Lords of the North 1903
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Jerrard was the avant-courier of this novel railroad.
The Rainy Day Railroad War Holman Day 1900
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Your arrival has already been notified to us by the avant-courier of the fashionable intelligence, so that we are well aware, "here laughing lightly," of the distinctive right you have to a hearty welcome in Naples.
Vendetta: a story of one forgotten Marie Corelli 1889
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Fritz and the canoe on board our boat, so that we might all arrive together; but I yielded to his earnest wish to return alone as he came; he longed to act as our avant-courier, and announce our approach to his mother; so he was soon skimming away over the surface of the water, while we followed at slower rate.
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Like an avenging spirit, he appeared every day at the same hour, rigid, inflexible, cruel, deaf to supplications and tears, a grim avant-courier of the executioner, selecting his victims and marking them for death.
Which? or, Between Two Women Ernest Daudet 1879
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Weber Hastings acted as guide, or rather avant-courier, since all knew the route that was to be followed.
The Phantom of the River Edward Sylvester Ellis 1878
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