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
In a memorable incident during a Talk session on r/australia, a user began to rant about killing Indigenous Australians. Paresh Dave, WIRED, 14 Mar. 2024 Cano, for example, ranted on Instagram Live about wanting to own his own music, while the singer Gerardo Ortiz sued his label for fraud. Julyssa Lopez, Rolling Stone, 11 Mar. 2024 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
Noun
Host Jimmy Kimmel read a rant Trump posted on Truth Social during the telecast. Stephen Battaglio, Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2024 Frankel's rant also included her doubt about the longevity of Travis and Swift's relationship. Natasha Dye, Peoplemag, 28 Feb. 2024 Most interviews are edited for clarity; in this case, the interview was cut to exclude a rambling, antisemitic rant. Sarah Jeong, The Verge, 23 Feb. 2024 Democrats − and Haley − pointed out that Trump has confused the names of foreign leaders and their countries, and once mixed up Haley with former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a rant over pre-insurrection security at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. David Jackson, USA TODAY, 10 Feb. 2024 In return, according to criminal and civil court documents, the man, who is White, rolled down his window and unleashed a rant of racial slurs and insults at the resident, who is Black, including calling her the n-word and a b----. Meagan Flynn, Washington Post, 31 Jan. 2024 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

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 28 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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