Lavant
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A shallow or more or less intermittent spring, or the stream of water (bourne) which feeds and springs forth from such a spring. UK, dialectal
"Lavants, are land springs, which break out much, on the downs of Sussex, Hants, and Wilts. The country people say, that when the Lavants rise, corn will be dear; meaning, that when the earth is so glutted with water as to send[…]"
- 2 A violent flow or rush of water. UK, dialectal
"How it did rain! It ran down the street in a lavant."
- 1 A civil parish in Chichester district, West Sussex, England (OS grid ref SU8508).
- 2 A municipality in East Tyrol, Austria.
- 3 A minor river in West Sussex.
- 4 A community in Lanark Highlands township, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Lavants, are land springs, which break out much, on the downs of Sussex, Hants, and Wilts. The country people say, that when the Lavants rise, corn will be dear; meaning, that when the earth is so glutted with water as to send[…]"
Etymology
Uncertain. Possibly from Middle English *lavand, *lavant, lavande, present participle of Middle English laven (“to stream, pour out a stream, wash”), from Old English lafian (“to pour water on, wash, lave, bathe, ladle out”), equivalent to lave + -and; or from Old French lavant, present participle of laver (“to wash”). See lave.
Compare lavant (“ephemeral spring”).
Compare Slovene Labotnica.
Related phrases
More for "lavant"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.