Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To breathe rapidly in short gasps, as after exertion.
  • intransitive verb To beat loudly or heavily; throb or pulsate.
  • intransitive verb To give off loud puffs, especially while moving.
  • intransitive verb To long demonstratively; yearn.
  • intransitive verb To utter hurriedly or breathlessly.
  • noun A short labored breath; a gasp.
  • noun A throb; a pulsation.
  • noun A short loud puff, as of steam from an engine.
  • noun Trousers.
  • noun Underpants.
  • idiom (with (one's) pants down) In an embarrassing position.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A public fountain or well in a town or village.
  • noun A quick, short effort of breathing; a gasp.
  • noun A throb, as of the heart.
  • To breathe hard or quickly; gasp with open mouth and heaving breast, as after exertion; gasp with excited eagerness.
  • To throb or heave with violence or rapidity, as the heart or the breast after exertion or emotion.
  • To bulge alternately in and out, as the skin of iron ships when the plating is structurally very weak.
  • To languish; pine.
  • To long with breathless eagerness; desire greatly or with agitation: with for or after.
  • Synonyms To puff, blow.
  • To yearn, sigh, hunger, thirst.
  • To breathe (out) in a labored manner; gasp (out) with a spasmodic effort.
  • To long for; desire with eagerness and agitation.

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

  • adjective Of or pertaining to pants.
  • intransitive verb To breathe quickly or in a labored manner, as after exertion or from eagerness or excitement; to respire with heaving of the breast; to gasp.
  • intransitive verb To long eagerly; to desire earnestly; -- often used with for or after.
  • intransitive verb To beat with unnatural violence or rapidity; to palpitate, or throb; -- said of the heart.
  • intransitive verb Poetic To sigh; to flutter; to languish.
  • noun A single leg of a pair of pants. See pants.
  • transitive verb To breathe forth quickly or in a labored manner; to gasp out.
  • transitive verb rare To long for; to be eager after.
  • noun A quick breathing; a catching of the breath; a gasp.
  • noun A violent palpitation of the heart.

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

  • noun A quick breathing; a catching of the breath; a gasp.
  • noun obsolete A violent palpitation of the heart.
  • verb intransitive To breathe quickly or in a labored manner, as after exertion or from eagerness or excitement; to respire with heaving of the breast; to gasp.
  • verb transitive To long for (something); to be eager for (something).
  • verb intransitive To long eagerly; to desire earnestly.
  • verb intransitive Of the heart, to beat with unnatural violence or rapidity; to palpitate.
  • verb intransitive To sigh; to flutter; to languish.
  • noun a public drinking fountain in Scotland and North-East England
  • noun fashion A pair of pants (trousers or underpants).
  • noun used attributively as a modifier Of or relating to pants.

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

  • noun a short labored intake of breath with the mouth open
  • noun (usually in the plural) a garment extending from the waist to the knee or ankle, covering each leg separately
  • verb utter while panting, as if out of breath
  • verb breathe noisily, as when one is exhausted
  • noun the noise made by a short puff of steam (as from an engine)

Etymologies

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

[Middle English panten, perhaps alteration of Old French pantaisier, from Vulgar Latin *pantasiāre, from Greek phantasioun, to form images, from phantasiā, appearance; see fantasy.]

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

[Short for pantaloon.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Possibly a shortening of Old French pantoisier ("to be breathless") (compare modern French panteler ("to gasp for breath")), probably from Vulgar Latin *pantasiō (“struggling for breath when having a nightmare”), from Ancient Greek φαντασιόω (phantasioō, "I am subject to hallucinations"), from φαντασία (phantasia, "appearance, image, fantasy").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Unknown

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From pants

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Examples

Comments

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  • Listed under "words I hate" as the singular of "pants," not as what dogs do.

    May 26, 2007

  • Oh, I agree! I loathe the use of this word to indicate a single pair of pants. I see it in fashion journalism and retail: jacket $200, blouse $100, pant $150. But don't we all put our "pants" on in the morning, not our "pant"? (Pace dress and skirt wearers.)

    April 16, 2008

  • I couldn't agree more. I say if you're selling a pant for $150, the pair should cost $300.

    And that's too much for pants anyway. ;-)

    April 16, 2008

  • Pant $150 bogof!

    April 16, 2008

  • As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.

    December 14, 2010