Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Cheerful; mirthful.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Laughing; gay; smiling: as, a riant landscape.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Laughing; laughable; exciting gayety; gay; merry; delightful to the view, as a landscape.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective When said of a person or a person's manner: mirthful, cheerful, smiling, light-hearted.
  • adjective When said of place, landscape or view: having a pleasant appearance, looking bright or cheerful.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective showing or feeling mirth or pleasure or happiness

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, present participle of rire, to laugh, from Old French, from Latin rīdēre.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French riant

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word riant.

Examples

  • Fel 'hen' riant o'r ardal, fe fedra i ei sicrhau nad Plaid Cymru sydd wrth wraidd yr sefyllfa hynod anffodus hon ond yn hytrach rhes o weinyddiaethau Llafur Caerdydd a ddistyrodd y galw am addysg Gymraeg.

    Dau begwn Plaid Cymru Dyfrig 2008

  • Now when she ended her lines, she mounted and they set forward with her, crossing and cutting over wold and wild and riant dale and rugged hill, till they came to the shore of the Sea of

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Amongst the rest, he descried a city ordered after the fairest fashion in the midst of a verdant and riant land, rich in trees and streams, with gazelles pacing daintily over the plains; whereat he fell a-musing and said to himself, Would

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • In the original French ( "Ses cheveux dans ses yeux, et riant au travers") Hugo doesn't say a word about them; as nearly as I can tell, she's just laughing through her unkempt hair.

    Poetry Slam 2007

  • Avant de lire ce cauchemareve, arretez de manger ou de faire quoique ce soit qui pourrait vous etouffer en riant!!

    pinku-tk Diary Entry pinku-tk 2007

  • I saw fertile fields, riant vegetation, strange trees — I heard the cry of cricket and pee-wit, and sibilant sound of many insects, all of which seemed to tell me, “At last you are started.”

    How I Found Livingstone Henry Morton 2004

  • Our eyes are somewhat startled by the amount of bright and vivid green: for some reason, unknown to us, the shore is far more riant than the northern section; and the land might be called quasi-agricultural.

    The Land of Midian 2003

  • The Wady Surr now began to widen out, and to become more riant, whilst porphyry was almost the only visible rock.

    The Land of Midian 2003

  • Amongst the rest, he decried a city ordered after the fairest fashion in the midst of a verdant and riant land, rich in trees and streams, with gazelles pacing daintily over the plains, whereat he fell a-musing and said to himself, "Would I knew the name of yon town and in what land it is!"

    Tehran Winter Naipaul, V.S. 1981

  • Rusticum; [5] Arnauld d'Andilli, in so many respects rendered illustrious, who retired to the convent of Port Royal, (that divine solitude, where the whole country for a league round breathed the air of virtue and holiness, to quote Mad. de Sevigné's words), and who sent each year to the queen some of that choice fruit which he there with such zeal cultivated, and which Mazarin "appelloit en riant des fruits bénis."

    On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening, with Biographical Notices of Them, 2nd edition, with considerable additions Samuel Felton

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Ooo.

    August 11, 2008

  • Ensure that you’re trademark compliant

    Promoting your company’s giant.

    It‘s copyright folly

    To say “green and jolly”

    So boast that he’s vernal and riant.

    August 7, 2018