a. and sb. [ad. L. ambientem pr. pple. of ambīre to go about, f. amb- on both sides, round, about + ī-re to go. Cf. It. ambiente bef. 1600.] A. adj.
† 1. Turning round, revolving. Obs. rare.
1614. Chapman, Odyss., I. 28. The point of time wrought out by ambient years. Ibid. (1620), Homer’s Hymns, Ep. Ded. Of all arts ambient in the orbe of Man.
2. Moving round, circling about (something). rare.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 64/1. The ambient æther … by the swiftness of its Motion, snatcheth up Stones from the Earth.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., 234. That the planets should naturally attain these circular revolutions … by impulse of ambient bodies.
1834. Disraeli, Rev. Epick, I. xxx. 15. Ye ambient Winds, That course about the quarters of the globe.
3. Lying round, surrounding, encircling, encompassing, environing.
1596. Bell, Surv. Popery, I. I. xvi. 69. As well for the ambient restraint.
1658. Sir T. Browne, Gard. Cyrus, i. 103. The tree of knowledge was placed in the middle of the Garden, what ever was the ambient figure.
c. 1750. Shenstone, Elegy, IX. 38. Exalted to yon ambient sky.
1784. Boswell, Johnson (1816), IV. 428. A captive in thy ambient arms.
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, II. 37. With echoing groans the ambient waste bewails Thy fate.
4. esp. Surrounding as a fluid; circumfused.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn (1640), 201. Consumption is caused by … Depredation of innate Spirit, and Depredation of ambient Aire.
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 481. Opening to the ambient light.
1711. Pope, Temp. Fame, 26. Whose tow’ring summit ambient clouds conceal’d.
1806. Vince, Hydrost., xi. 110. If the plate be cold, and the ambient fluid be warm.
1866. Kingsley, Herew., v. 104. It diffused a delicate odour through the ambient air.
5. Rounded like a solid body. rare.
1801. Fuseli, Lect. Art, i. (1848), 360. He who decided his outline with such intelligence that it appeared ambient, and pronounced the parts that escaped the eye.
† 6. Ambitious, aspiring. (A Latinism.) Obs. rare.
1647. N. Bacon, Hist. Disc., iii. 12. The Clergy … soon began to be ambient and conceipt a new Idea of deportment.
¶ As an epithet of the air, often ignorantly put for ‘limpid,’ or otherwise misused.
B. sb. [The adj. used absol.]
† 1. A canvasser, suitor or aspirant. Obs. rare.
1649. Bp. Hall, Confirmation (1651), 16. What Fair-like confluences have we there seen of zealous ambients?
2. An encompassing circle or sphere.
1624. Wotton, Elem. Archit. (1672), 7. The aire … being a perpetual ambient and ingredient.
1657. Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 547. They are broad, asperated about their ambient.
1864. MacVicar, in Reader, IV. 679/1. Atoms or molecules have extensive atmospheres or ambients of some kind.
3. Astrol. The ambient air or sky.
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, III. iii. 472. ♄ and ♂, by the Repetition of the Aspect, may sometimes disturb the Ambient above a year.
1868. Geo. Eliot, Sp. Gypsy, 193. For the ambient. Though a cause regnant, is not absolute.
