Frequent a.

[ad. L. frequent-em crowded, frequent; cognate with farcīre to stuff (see FARCE v.¹).]

  † 1.  Of persons, an assembly, etc.: Assembled in great numbers, crowded, full. Often in full and frequent. Obs.

1590.  Disc. conc. Span. Invas., in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), II. 166. There was generally made throughout the whole realm, a most frequent assembly of all sorts of people publickly to give thanks unto God.

1606.  Holland, Sueton., 14. He … in a ful and frequent assemblie with shedding teares and renting his garment down the brest, besought the faithfull helpe and assistance of his soldiers.

c. 1611.  Chapman, Iliad, II. 71.

1638.  R. Baillie, Lett. (1775), I. 37. To-morrow, in Stirling, is expected a frequent council.

1674.  Dryden, State Innoc., I. Wks. 1883, V. 128.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., XVI. 377.

1746.  H. Walpole, Lett. to Sir H. Mann (1857), II. 38. One hundred and thirty-nine Lords were present, and made a noble sight on their benches frequent and full!

  † b.  Of a place: Filled, full, crowded (with persons, rarely with things). Also, much resorted to, frequented. Obs.

1536.  Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), I. p. xviii. The erd is now mair frequent in pepil than it was in thay dayis.

1555.  Grindal, Rem. (1843), 239. Master Scory and certain other with him be in Friesland, and have an English church there, but not very frequent.

1603.  Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 342. Adorne his bodie with those ornaments which he accustomed to put on when he was to play upon his harpe, for a prize in some frequent Theater.

1604.  R. Cawdrey, Table Alph., Frequent, much haunted, or goe too.

1673.  Ray, Journ. Low C., 1. The town [Calais] for bigness exceeds Dover, and seem’d frequent and full of People.

1815.  Shelley, Alastor, 92.

  2.  Found at short distances apart; numerous, abundant. Somewhat arch.

1605.  Camden, Rem. (1637), 2. [Britaine is] … beautified with many populous Cities … frequent Hospitals [etc.].

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 343. There is no Beast so frequent as these in all Cilicia.

1657.  R. Ligon, Barbadoes (1673), 2. To stand aloof from Pirats and Pickaroones: which are very frequent upon the Coasts of Spain, and Barbary.

1705.  Addison, Italy (1766), 149.

1722.  D. Coxe, Carolana, 86. The Plant of which Indico is made, is very frequent in most of the Southern Parts of this Country.

1816.  Keatinge, Trav. (1817), I. 217. Its lofty battlements, machicolated and loop-holed walls of unburnt brick of a dusky red hue, flanked and crowned by frequent square towers, embosomed in luxuriant foliage of the fig-tree, and now in the most picturesque stage of dilapidation.

1860.  Hawthorne, Transform., II. xvi. 275. Whatever may be the iniquities of the papal system, it was a wise and lovely sentiment, that set up the frequent shrine and cross along the roadside.

  3.  Commonly used or practised, well known, common, usual. Now rare. † Frequent to: commonly occurring in.

1531.  Elyot, The Boke Named the Gouernour, III. vii. Howe frequent and familiar a thynge with euery astate and degre throughout Christendame is this reuerent othe.

1635.  A. Stafford, The Femall Glory (1869), 39. I have not so much as used any one word not frequent, and familiar, because I would make the sense cleare to the Femal Readers.

a. 1668.  Davenant, Siege, I. Dram. Wks. 1873, IV. 375.

1706.  Congreve, Disc. Pindaric Ode, A j. There is nothing more frequent among us, than a sort of poems entitled Pindarique Odes.

1762–71.  H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), II. 239. Such enamelled plates being frequent to old watches instead of crystals.

1816.  Keatinge, Trav. (1817), I. 139. Such we may rely on it was a picture, and a correct one, of frequent life.

1869.  Times, 1 Jan., 4. It is frequent to impute to Radicals the wish to ‘Americanize our institutions.’

  † b.  Of a report, etc.: Widely current. Of a book: Widely circulated, popular. Obs.

1623.  Crt. & Times Jas. I. (1849), II. 369. I was not then fully persuaded of the prince’s going to Spain, though the report were frequent, from London.

1626.  Massinger, Rom. Actor, I. i.

1628.  Earle, Microcosm., Pot-Poet (Arb.), 46. His frequent’st Workes goe out in single sheets, and are chanted from market to market, to a vile tune, and a worse throat: whilst the poore Country wench melts like her butter to heare them.

1631.  J. Weever, Ancient Funerall Monuments, 62. The story is frequent, and I shall often touch vpon it.

  4.  Happening or occurring at short intervals; often recurring; coming or happening in close succession. Of the pulse: Faster than is normal or usual (cf. F. pouls fréquent).

  The prevailing sense, by which all the others, so far as they survive, are more or less colored.

1604.  R. Cawdrey, Table Alph., Frequent, often, done many times.

1615.  J. Stephens, Satyr. Ess., 260. This watch-word will be frequent in his cups.

1662–3.  Marvell, Corr., xxxvii. Wks. 1872–5, II. 83. Concerning which you may expect frequente letters.

1707.  Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 43. This Pulse is feverish, more quick and great, and frequenter than the former.

1750.  T. Newton, Postscr. to Milton’s P. L. There have been frequent forgeries in the literary world.

1795.  Gentl. Mag., LXV. II. July, 539/2. The blights were this year more opake, more frequent, and (to trees and shrubs) more destructive than usual.

1816.  J. Wilson, City of Plague, I. i.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xxiii. 166. The snow was deep at many places, and our immersions in unseen holes very frequent.

  5.  Addicted to, wont to indulge in (a practice, course of action); accustomed to do (something); given to repetition in (a subject). Now rare.

1560.  Rolland, The Court of Venus, II. 911.

1608.  Dod & Cleaver, Expos. Prov., ix. & xii. 101. The holy Ghost in this booke, is very frequent in this point.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., IV. ii. 36. He is of late much retyred form Court, and is lesse frequent to his Princely exercises then formerly he hath appeared.

1616.  Donne, Serm., cliii. (Alford), VI. 118. The fathers are frequent in comparing and paralleling Eve, the mother of man, and Mary the mother of God.

1649.  Bp. Hall, Cases Consc., 7. How frequent the Scripture is in the prohibition of this practice, no Christian can be ignorant.

1710.  Steele, Tatler, No. 244, 28 Oct., ¶ 5. Fellows of this Class are very frequent in the Repetition of the Words Rough and Manly.

1854–58.  Newman, Idea of University (1873), 329. Milton is frequent in allusions to his own history and circumstances.

  6.  † a. That is often at or in (a place). Obs. b. (with an agent-noun): That does a thing often; constant, habitual, regular.

1611.  Bible, 2 Cor. xi. 23. In prisons more frequent: in deaths oft.

1614.  Massinger, Parl. Love, I. iv.

1628.  in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1883), I. 208–9. Fyve of the frequentest Comunicants.

1784.  Cowper, Task, VI. 305.

1857.  Willmott, Pleas. Lit., xi. 49. Of course, the frequent writer will, in time, be quick.

1886.  Ruskin, Præterita, I. vii. 211. That the Professor of Moral Philosophy was a frequent guest at my grandmother’s tea-table, and fond of benignantly arguing with Miss Margaret, is evidence enough of the position she held in Edinburgh circles.

  † c.  That is often in company with (a person); familiar; conversant in (a subject). Obs.

c. 1600.  Shaks., Sonnet cxvii.

1615.  J. Stephens, Satyr. Ess., 214. Hee commits the best part of his vnderstanding to a talkatiue Barber: with whome he is the more frequent; because he thinks, to haue a curle pate, is to haue a visible wit.

1631.  Heywood, Eng. Eliz. (1641), 52. Hee was … In the liberall arts so frequent, that they appeared rather innate and born with him, then either acquired by teaching or study. Ibid. (1632), 2nd Pt. Iron Age, To the Reader, Wks. 1874, III. 352. An Historicall Comment of euery hard name, which may appeare obscure or intricate to such as are not frequent in Poetry.

  7.  quasi-adv. (Also, in illiterate use, as a real adv. = Frequently, often.)

1614.  Selden, Titles of Honor, 6. Such like more occurre in ancient and later Storie very frequent, in so much that scarce any communitie oftimes appeares.

1784.  Cowper, Task, II. 61.

1810.  Scott, Lady of L., I. 490.

1870.  B. Harte, Truthf. James, ii.

  Hence Frequentness, the state or condition of being frequent; frequency.

1664.  H. More, Expos. Seven Churches, c 7 a. Allusion to Thyateria, Altars of Incense or sweet Odours, it signifies the more-then-ordinary frequentness of burning the blessed Protestant Martyrs with fire and faggot in this Period. Ibid. (1668), Divine Dialogues, II. viii. 217. Admit the necessity of dying, what necessity or conveniency of the frequentness of Diseases?

1862.  Burton, Book-Hunter (1863), 368. Some people would be content to attribute the frequentness of saintship among the Irish and the Highlanders to the opportunities enjoyed by them in consequence of the early Church having found a refuge in Ireland.