regardant

From Anglo-Norman regardant, Middle French regardant.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈɡɑːdn̩t/

regardant (not comparable)

1. (heraldry, of an animal): with the head turned toward the back of the body. [from 15th c.]
   • 1993, John Banville, Ghosts

     I see a forked beast squatting on the midden of the world, red-eyed, regardant, gnawing on a shinbone: poor, dumb destroyer.

2. Watchful, attentive; contemplative. [from 16th c.]
   • 1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, II.3:

     To horse, to horse: thus once Eurydice, / With looks regardant, did the Thracian gaze […].

   • 1895 October 1, Stephen Crane, chapter 8, in The Red Badge of Courage, 1st US edition, New York: D. Appleton and Company, page 84:

     He stood regardant for a moment.

   • 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift:

     And now others, casually regardant, passed the place in automobiles.

• guardant

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regardant

1. present participle of regarder

regardant (feminine singular regardante, masculine plural regardants, feminine plural regardantes)

1. miserly, stingy

• “regardant” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).