Noun the new governor soon had to deal with a long line of supplicants asking for jobs and other political favors Adjective hated having to go before his boss like a supplicant beggar whenever he needed some time off to attend to personal matters
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
This is why the wizard acts as an exorcist, never a supplicant, King explained. Kent Russell, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022 But both mendicant and supplicant have a religious connotation. Stephen Miller, WSJ, 11 Oct. 2021 In Afghanistan, America is necessarily a supplicant now. Joel Mathis, The Week, 24 Aug. 2021 Synonyms for beggar include hobo, pauper, tramp, vagrant, derelict, mendicant, bum, supplicant, deadbeat, borrower. Stephen Miller, WSJ, 11 Oct. 2021 Many contracts treat the buyer as a worthless supplicant, lucky to have the opportunity to acquire the seller’s property. Joshua Stein, Forbes, 17 Sep. 2021 One of the best strategies to feel more normal about networking is to approach people as a peer, rather than a supplicant. Dorie Clark, WSJ, 17 Sep. 2021 Another supplicant wanted a piece of the lottery winnings to get her driveway paved. Marc Fisher, Anchorage Daily News, 19 June 2021 Another supplicant wanted a piece of the lottery winnings to get her driveway paved. Marc Fisher, Anchorage Daily News, 19 June 2021
Adjective
Speakers seemed alternately angry and supplicant, aware, at some level, their efforts probably won’t work. Rachel Swan, San Francisco Chronicle, 22 July 2021 For the Kremlin, the shipment was a propaganda coup: the latest chance to show Mr. Putin’s nation and the globe that the days of Russia as a supplicant on the world stage were long gone. Anton Troianovski, New York Times, 2 Apr. 2020 Peled was superb in the role of supplicant, with full-bodied tone and a wide range of tonal colors.cleveland, 21 Oct. 2019 Her critics in Hong Kong derided her smiling presence in Beijing as that of a supplicant, not an autonomous leader, which illustrated the depth of the chasm between the two sides. Chris Buckley, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2019 George and William used to be equals—now George is a supplicant. Willing Davidson, The New Yorker, 24 June 2019 The 1990 and 1997 summits both took place at the peak of American triumph, when the Russian state was very much a supplicant to the world’s only superpower. Jeet Heer, The New Republic, 27 June 2018 This time, Trump is more of a supplicant, needing vigorous turnout from pro-gun voters to offset what many Republicans fear could be a midterm election disaster in November. Stephen Collinson, CNN, 4 May 2018 Once Trump took office, Roth would remain a visible supplicant, appearing with the president at a public event in Ohio to lend credence to his bogus infrastructure initiative. Frank Rich, Daily Intelligencer, 29 Apr. 2018 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English, borrowed from Medieval Latin supplicant-, supplicans "petitioner," noun derivative from Latin supplicant-, supplicans, present participle of supplicāre "to seek the goodwill (of a person wronged) with peace offerings, supplicate"
Adjective
borrowed from Latin supplicant-, supplicans, present participle of supplicāre "to seek the goodwill (of a person wronged) with peace offerings, supplicate"