Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WAN'TON, a. [W. gwantan, apt to run off; variable, fickle, wanton; gwantu, to thrust, to sever; allied probably to wander.]

1. Wandering or roving in gayety or sport; sportive; frolicksome darting aside, or one way and the other. Wanton boys kill flies for sport. Note a wild and wanton herd. – Shak.
2. Moving or flying loosely; playing in the wind. She / Her unadorned golden tresses wore / Dishevel'd, but in wanton ringlets wav'd. – Milton.
3. Wandering from moral rectitude; licentious; dissolute; indulging in sensuality without restraint; as, men grown wanton by prosperity. – Roscommon. My plenteous joys / Wanton in fullness. – Shak.
4. More appropriately, deviating from the rules of chastity; lewd; lustful; lascivious; libidinous. Thou art forward by nature, enemy to peace, / Lascivious, wanton. – Shak. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton. – James v.
5. Disposed to unchastity; indicating wantonness. – Isa. iii.
6. Loose; unrestrained; running to excess. How does your tongue grow wanton in her praise! – Addison.
7. Luxuriant; overgrown. What we by day lop overgrown, / One night or two with wanton growth derides, / Tending to wild. – Milton.
8. Extravagant; as, wanton dress. – Milton.
9. Not regular; not turned or formed with regularity. The quaint mazes in the wanton green. – Milton.

WAN'TON, n.

1. A lewd person; a lascivious man or woman. – South. Shak.
2. A trifler; an insignificant flutterer. – Shak.
3. A word of slight endearment. Peace, my wanton. [Little used.] – B. Jonson.

WAN'TON, v.i.

1. To rove and ramble without restrain; rule or limit; to revel; to play loosely. Nature here / Wanton'd as in her prime. – Milton. Her golden tresses wanton in the wind. – Anon.
2. To ramble in lewdness; to play lasciviously. – Prior.
3. To move briskly and irregularly.

WAN'TON-ING, ppr.

Roving; flying loosely; playing it without restraint; indulging in licentiousness.

WAN'TON-IZE, v.i.

To behave wantonly. [Not in use.]

WAN'TON-LY, adv.

Loosely; without regularity or restraint; sportively; gayly; playfully; lasciviously.

WAN'TON-NESS, n.

1. Sportiveness; gayety; frolicksomeness; waggery. As sad as night, / Only for wantonness. – Shak.
2. Licentiousness; negligence of restraint. The tumults threatened to abuse all acts of grace, and turn them into wantonness. – K. Charles.
3. Lasciviousness; lewdness. Rom. xiii. 2 Pet. ii.

WANT'-WIT, n. [want and wit.]

One destitute of wit or sense; a fool. [Not in much use.] – Shak.

WAN'TY, n. [D. want, cordage, tackling. Qu.]

A broad strap of leather, used for binding a load upon the back of a beast. [Local.] – Tusser.

WAP'A-CUT, n.

The spotted owl of Hudson's bay, Strix Wapacuthu, a nocturnal accipitrine bird of prey, about two feet long.

WA'PED, a. [from the root of L. vapulo, to strike, and awhap, whap, which the common people in New England use and pronounce whop.]

Dejected; cast down; crushed by misery. [Not in use.] – Shak.

WAP'EN-TAKE, or WAP'EN-TAC, n. [Sax. wæpen-tac; but it is rather Gothic, as this division of a county was peculiar to the northern counties; wæpen, a weapon, and tac, tace, touch; Goth. tekan. See Touch. This name had its origin in a custom of touching lances or spears when the hundreder or chief entered on his office. “Cum quis accipiebat præfecturam wapentachii, die statuto in loco ubi consueverant congregari, omnes majores natu contra eum conveniebant, et descendente eo de equo suo, omnes assurgebant ei. Ipse vero erecta lancea sua, ab omnibus secundum morem fœdus accipiebat; omnes enim quotquot venissent cum lanceis suis ipsius hastam tangebant, et ita se confirmabant per contactum armorum, pace palam concessa. Wæpnu enim arma sonat; tac, tactus est – hac de causa totus ille conventus dicitur Wapentac, eo quod per tactum armorum suorum ad invicem confœderati sunt.” – LL. Edward Confessor 33. Wilkins. Lye seems to doubt this explanation of the word wapen-tac, because the word tac is not found in the Saxon. He seems not to have considered that the word is known only in the north of England, where the Gothic dialects prevailed; and surely the word must have been understood in the age of Edward the Confessor.]

In some northern counties of England, a division or district, answering to the hundred or cantred in other counties. The name was first given to the meeting, supra. – Selden. Blackstone. Wilkins.

WAP'I-TI, n.

This word is used in books for the North American stag, Cervus Canadensis. But in this country, the animal is incorrectly called elk. The true elk is the Cercus Alces, often called Moose.

WAPP, n.

In a ship, the rope with which the shrouds are set taught in wale-knots. – Cyc.

WAPPE, n.

A species of cur, said to be so called from his voice. His only use is to alarm the family by barking when any person approaches the house. – Cyc.

WAP'PER, n.

A fish; a name given to the smaller species of the river gudgeon. – Cyc.

WAR, n. [waur; Sax. wær; Fr. guerre; It. Sp. and Port. guerra; D. warren, to quarrel, wrangle, entangle; Dan. virrer; G. verwirren, to perplex, embroil, disturb. The primary sense of the root is to strive, struggle, urge, drive, or to turn, to twist.]

1. A contest between nations or states, carried on by force, either for defense, or for revenging insults and redressing wrongs, for the extension of commerce or acquisition of territory, or for obtaining and establishing the superiority and dominion of one over the other. These objects are accomplished by the slaughter or capture of troops, and the capture and destruction of ships, towns and property. Among rude nations, war is often waged and carried on for plunder. As war is the contest of nations or states, it always implies that such contest is authorized by the monarch or the sovereign power of the nation. When war is commenced by attacking a nation in peace, it is called an offensive war, and such attack is aggressive. When war is undertaken to repel invasion or the attacks of an enemy, it is called defensive, and a defensive war is considered as justifiable. Very few of the wars that have desolated nations and deluged the earth with blood, have been justifiable. Happy would it be for mankind, if the prevalence of Christian principles might ultimately extinguish the spirit of war, and if the ambition to be great, might yield to the ambition of being good. Preparation for war is sometimes the best security for peace. – Anon.
2. In poetical language, instruments of war. His complement of stores, and total war. – Prior.
3. Poetically, forces; army. O'er the embattled ranks the waves return / And overwhelm their war. – Milton.
4. The profession of arms; art of war; as, a fierce man of war. – Is. ii. Wisdom.
5. Hostility; state of opposition or contest; act of opposition. – Shak.
6. Enmity; disposition to contention. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. Ps. iv. Man of war, in naval affairs, a ship of large size, armed and equipped for attack or defense. Holy war, crusade; a war undertaken to deliver the Holy Land, or Judea, from infidels. These holy wars were carried on by most unholy means.

WAR, v.i.

1. To make war; to invade or attack a nation or state with force of arms; to carry on hostilities; or to be in a state of contest by violence. He teacheth my hands to war. – 2 Sam. xxii. And they warred against the Midianites. – Numb. xxxi. Why should I war without the walls of Troy? – Shak.
2. To contend; to strive violently; to be in a state of opposition. Lusts which war against the soul. – 1 Pet. ii.

WAR, v.t.

1. To make war upon; as, to war the Scot. [Not used.]
2. To carry on a contest. That thou mightest war a good warfare. – 1 Tim. i.

WAR'-BEAT, or WAR-BEAT-EN, a. [war and beat.]

Worn down in war. – J. Barlow.

WAR'-BE-REAV-ED, a.

Bereaved by war.

WAR'BLE, v.i. [G. wirbeln, to turn, whirl, warble; wirbel, a whirl, a vortex; wirbelbein, a turning bone or joint; L. vertebra; Dan. hvirvler, Eng. to whirl. These words are all of one family; L. verto, Eng. veer, vary, &c.]

1. To quaver a sound or the voice; to modulate with turns or variations. Certain birds are remarkable for warbling their songs.
2. To cause to quaver. And touch the warbled string. – Milton.
3. To utter musically; to be modulated. If she be right invok'd with warbled song. – Milton. Warbling sweet the nuptial lay. – Trumbull.

WAR'BLE, v.t.

1. To be quavered or modulated. Such strains ne'er warble in the linnet's throat. – Gay.
2. To be uttered melodiously; as, warbling lays. For warbling notes from inward cheering flow. – Sidney.
3. To sing. Birds on the branches warbling. – Milton.

WAR'BLED, pp.

Quavered; modulated; uttered musically.

WAR'BLER, n.

1. A singer; a songster; used of birds. In lulling strains the feathered warblers woo. – Tickel.
2. The common name of a genus of small birds (Sylvia) comprising most of the small woodland songsters of Europe and North America. They feed on insects and are very lively and active. The blue-bird is arranged by some as a species of the genus. – Ed. Encyc. Wilson.