A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1990 (DOST Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Rant, n. [17th c. Eng. rant a piece of turgid declamation, a tirade (1649), also (north. Eng.) a spree, also transf. (1675), f. Rant,v.] A boisterous merry-making, a bout of excessive eating and, esp., drinking.1657 Misc. Hist. Soc. VII 13.
At night Craigebuii, John Ramsay [etc.] … keeped a rant in Hawthornden 1665–7 Lauder Jrnl. 129.
I had not dined, my Poictiers rant incapacitating me 1666-74 Fraser Polichron. 282.
After a rant of an excessive botle of wine with his commarads in Lieth, the master sickned Ib. 379.
The Aird regiment … marched through Inverness … without rant or vanity c1679 Kirkton Hist. 148.
Such a rant as he made … was never known in Scotland before or after. … [His hosts] hade not only their dining room for eating, but their drinking room for suilling [etc.]
b. An extravagant celebration. —1666-74 Fraser Polichron. 105.
This marriage feast of the Master of Lovats in Tarnway was a rant indeed; for besids the nobility and gentry present, there were 3 bishops present also
