rant

1 of 2

verb

ranted; ranting; rants

intransitive verb

1
: to talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner
2
: to scold vehemently

transitive verb

: to utter in a bombastic declamatory fashion
ranter noun
rantingly adverb

rant

2 of 2

noun

1
a
: a bombastic extravagant speech
b
: bombastic extravagant language
2
dialectal British : a rousing good time

Examples of rant in a Sentence

Verb “You can rant and rave all you want,” she said, “but it's not going to change things.” He ranted that they were out to get him. Noun after complaining about the hotel's lousy service, the woman went off on another rant about the condition of her room instead of addressing the current crisis, the mayor's speech was a lot of rant emphasizing his accomplishments
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
As the line separating right-of-center comedians from Fox News hosts blurs to nonexistence—and as Jon Stewart returns to rant against partisan myopia on The Daily Show—Gillis makes no claim to being wiser than anyone. TIME, 23 Feb. 2024 In the video posted after the killing, Mohn described his father as a 20-year federal employee, espoused a variety of conspiracy theories and ranted against the government. Haleluya Hadero, Fortune, 3 Feb. 2024 Prior to Trump’s ascension, conspiracy-laden messages were largely confined to the seedy cesspools of the web like 4chan and Infowars, where fringe hosts such as Alex Jones ranted to marginalized audiences. Oliver Darcy, CNN, 1 Feb. 2024 Police said Little Gaston Stone, 51, walked into the Smyrna Police Department Tuesday while recording the visit on a tablet and ranting about Gov. Brian Kemp, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported citing an arrest warrant. Minyvonne Burke, NBC News, 9 Feb. 2024 Teaming up with costar Bruce Willis, Pitt plays Jeffrey Goines, an unpredictable, ranting psychiatric patient in a dystopian facility who happens to be the son of the world's premiere virologist–turned–aggressive social activist. Derek Scancarelli, EW.com, 18 Dec. 2023 Twitter suspended Jones for a week that August for incitements to violence, and made the ban permanent the next month over a Periscope stream on the InfoWars account in which Jones ranted at CNN journalist Oliver Darcy for 10 minutes in a Capitol Hill hallway. Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 10 Dec. 2023 In the segment, featured at the end of every episode, Yang, Rogers and often the guest have 60 seconds to rant about an aspect of life or culture that frustrates them. Caitlin Huston, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Feb. 2024 Michael Yon, one of the convoy promoters, screamed and ranted at the audience about how Jewish people were funding an NGO that works along the Texas border. David Gilbert, WIRED, 2 Feb. 2024
Noun
Embracing Politics: Come for the draft analysis, stay for the anti-Biden rant. Rory Smith, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2024 Become a Subscriber At this point in her speech, two men interject, ready to start their own rants about, respectively, undocumented immigrants and China. Jordan Kisner, The Atlantic, 9 Feb. 2024 Jonah Goldberg: Trump’s rants about NATO are making the U.S. weaker. Anthony De Leon, Los Angeles Times, 30 Jan. 2024 The feat comes just over a year after Ye went on several antisemitic rants in late 2022. Daysia Tolentino, NBC News, 21 Feb. 2024 Smith, known in part for his humorous rants against the Cowboys, said the team should’ve hired ex-New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick instead of retaining Mike McCarthy. Lawrence Dow, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 Feb. 2024 This message was further echoed during a Dec. 16 rant on immigration. Kalia Richardson, Rolling Stone, 13 Feb. 2024 Related article Accusations, tears and rants: 5 takeaways from today’s tech CEO hearing By Friday, only X and Discord indicated plans to meet with families or parent advocacy groups in the wake of the hearing, although the promises were light on details. Clare Duffy, CNN, 3 Feb. 2024 With his frequent partisan rants, his columns call into question the veracity of your mission statement. Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 26 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb

obsolete Dutch ranten, randen

First Known Use

Verb

1601, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

Noun

1649, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of rant was in 1601

Dictionary Entries Near rant

Cite this Entry

“Rant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rant. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

rant

1 of 2 verb
: to talk loudly and wildly
ranter noun

rant

2 of 2 noun
: loud and wild speech

More from Merriam-Webster on rant

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