RAMPANT

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does rampant mean? 

• RAMPANT (adjective)
  The adjective RAMPANT has 3 senses:

1. unrestrained and violent

2. rearing on left hind leg with forelegs elevated and head usually in profile

3. (of a plant) having a lush and unchecked growth

  Familiarity information: RAMPANT used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RAMPANT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Unrestrained and violent

Context example:

rampant aggression

Similar:

uncontrolled (not being under control; out of control)

Derivation:

ramp (behave violently, as if in state of a great anger)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Rearing on left hind leg with forelegs elevated and head usually in profile

Synonyms:

rampant; rearing

Context example:

a lion rampant

Similar:

erect; upright; vertical (upright in position or posture)

Domain category:

heraldry (the study and classification of armorial bearings and the tracing of genealogies)

Derivation:

ramp (be rampant)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(of a plant) having a lush and unchecked growth

Context example:

a rampant growth of weeds

Similar:

abundant (present in great quantity)

 Context examples 

But his curiosity was rampant, and several minutes later he was venturing forth on a new quest.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Once negative processes exceed positive ones, protein misfolding becomes rampant and cell death occurs.

(Study reveals how collapse of protein processes is driver of aging and death, National Science Foundation)

There are signs of rampant bad temper in the steerage, and the gossip is going around that Smoke and Henderson have had a fight.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Life streamed through him in splendid flood, glad and rampant, until it seemed that it would burst him asunder in sheer ecstasy and pour forth generously over the world.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Of course it was uphill work at first, and Jo made queer mistakes, but the wise Professor steered her safely into calmer waters, and the most rampant ragamuffin was conquered in the end.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He envied Joe, down in the village, rampant, tearing the slats off the bar, his brain gnawing with maggots, exulting in maudlin ways over maudlin things, fantastically and gloriously drunk and forgetful of Monday morning and the week of deadening toil to come.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But the beast in the mate was up and rampant, and Wolf Larsen was compelled to brush him away with a back-handed sweep of the arm, gentle enough, apparently, but which hurled Johansen back like a cork, driving his head against the wall with a crash.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He did his best and did it manfully, but I don't think he found that a pair of rampant boys, a pipe, or even the divine Plato, were very satisfactory substitutes for wife and child at home.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars and over the face of dead matter that did not move.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)