The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bacchant \Bac"chant\, n.; pl. E. Bacchants, L. Bacchantes. [L. bacchans, -antis, p. pr. of bacchari to celebrate the festival of Bacchus.]
A priest of Bacchus.
A bacchanal; a reveler.
--Croly.
Bacchante \Bac"chante\, n.; L. pl. Bacchantes.
A priestess of Bacchus.
A female bacchanal.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (plural of bacchant English) 2 (plural of bacchante English)
WordNet
See bacchant
n: someone who engages in drinking bouts [syn: drunken reveler, drunken reveller, bacchanal]
a drunken reveller; a devotee of Bacchus [syn: bacchanal]
(classical mythology) a priest or votary of Bacchus
[also: bacchantes (pl)]
Usage examples of "bacchantes".
These two Bacchantes began to imitate the caresses I lavished on my housekeeper, who was quite astonished at the amorous fury with which my attendant played the part of a man with the other girl.
At this point Annette came in, and in obedience to her mistress replaced the coverlet over the two Bacchantes.
On leaving the bath I gave a Louis to each of the two Bacchantes, and we went away determined to go there no more.
Then, still pursued by the flying amorettes, the bacchantes, fauns, satyrs, nymphs, and youths depart in various directions.
From the distant background a procession of bacchantes approach, rushing through the rows of the loving couples and stimulating them to wilder pleasures.
Satyrs and fauns have appeared from the cleft of the rocks and, dancing the while, force their way between the bacchantes and lovers, increasing the disorder by chasing the nymphs.
Letter of Brissot to his constituents: "The brigands and the bacchantes have found their way into the new hall.
We had tried it already: I thought with horror of the head of Crassus, tossed from hand to hand like a ball in the course of a performance of Euripides' Bacchantes which a barbarian king with a smattering of Greek learning had presented on the afternoon of a victory over Rome.