a. and sb. [Fr. clairvoyant, clear-sighted, optically or mentally.]
A. adj.
ǁ 1. [Fr.] Clear-sighted, having insight.
1671. Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.), Rehearsal, III. i. (Arb.), 73. If he likes it, I know what to think of him…. I am Clara voyant, a gad.
2. Having or exercising the faculty of clairvoyance; pertaining to clairvoyance.
1850. W. Gregory, Anim. Magnetism, 158. Clairvoyant Prevision or the power … of predicting future events.
1858. J. Martineau, Stud. Chr., 208. The appeal to clairvoyant skill, by Montanus.
b. fig. (cf. sense 1, and CLAIRVOYANCE 2).
1883. H. Drummond, Nat. Law in Spir. W., 11. The clairvoyant power of seeing the eternal in the temporal.
B. sb.
ǁ 1. [Fr.] A clear-sighted person. Obs.
1794. Mathias, Purs. Lit. (1798), 353. He is also one of the Clairvoyans, and of the order of the Chevaliers des Lunettes.
2. One who possesses, or is alleged to possess, the faculty of clairvoyance. (Often treated as Fr., with fem. clairvoyante.)
1851. H. Mayo, Pop. Superst. (ed. 2), 159. The powers here attributed to very lucid clairvoyants.
1861. Geo. Eliot, Silas M., 53. A docile clairvoyante, who would really not make a mistake if she could help it.
1862. Lytton, Str. Story, I. 90. He had consulted a clairvoyante … as to Lilian’s health.
Hence Clairvoyantly adv.
1885. Sinnett, Karma, I. 49. Does she look about the world clairvoyantly, and tell … what is going on in distant places?
