Also tant. [Origin and history obscure: perhaps two words; sense 2 evidently goes with TAUNT v.2 and ATAUNT adv. 2.]
1. (?) Haughty; ‘high and mighty’; ‘stuck-up.’ In mod dial. saucy, pert.
c. 1500. Medwall, Nature (Brandl), 823. Thys boy ys passyng taunte [rhyme avant].
a. 1500. Image Ipocr., II. 198, in Skelton’s Wks. (1843), II. 425/1. He is so hault and taunt That he dare hyme avaunt, All erthly men to daunt.
1880. W. Cornw. Gloss., Taunt, pert. ‘A taunt piece of goods.’
1882. Jago, Gloss. Cornw. Dial., Taunt, pert, ‘high and mighty,’ saucy.
2. Naut. Of masts: Excessively tall or lofty.
[c. 1579: implied in TAUNT v.2]
1622. R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea, lix. 138. Neither can the ship be so strong with a decke and a halfe…: nor carry her Mastes so taunt: nor spread so great a clue.
a. 1625. Nomenclator Navalis (Harl. MS. 2301), Taunt is when a mast is very high for the proportion of the shipp, wee saie it is a Taunt-mast.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., iii. 15. For a man of warre, a well ordered Taunt-mast is best. Ibid., 17. If your Masts be taunt, your yards must be the shorter.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Tant, Tantest, Mast of a Ship or Man, Tall, Tallest.
1736. Lewis, Hist. Thanet, Gloss., Taant, tall, or too high for its breadth or bigness, ‘a taant mast, house.’
1831. Examiner, 740/2. With a deep keel and sharp run, taunt sticks and spanking sails.
1851. Kipping, Sailmaking (ed. 2), 189. Taunt, an epithet, at sea, signifying high or tall. It is particularly expressed of the masts, when they are of extraordinary length.
1863. Robson, Bards Tyne, 397. Tant ships, that come with rampant rig, Against its sides are rested.
1898. F. T. Bullen, Cruise Cachalot, 370. The ‘crow’s nests’ are dismantled, taunt topgallant-masts sent up, and royal yards crossed.
† b. Phr. With taunt sail(s), also bearing a taunt sail, with all sail set: cf. ATAUNT 2. Obs.
1622. R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea, liii. 124. With much winde, and a chapping Sea, bearing a taunt-sayle.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., v. 177. Shippes were wont to passe vnder with taunt sayles. Ibid., x. 502. A gallant ship, puft with taunt saile.
c. Comb., as taunt-masted, -rigged.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., iii. 15. Taunt-masted.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Taunt, when the Masts of a Ship are too tall for her, they say she is Taunt-masted, or that her Masts are very Taunt.
1825. H. B. Gascoigne, Nav. Fame, 70. Taunt rigg’d she seems, and like a Privateer.
† B. adv. (?) To the full, thoroughly: cf. ATAUNT 1. Obs.
a. 1500. Hye Way to Spyttel Ho., 542, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 49. And there they prate, and make theyr auaunt Of theyr deceytes, and drynk adew taunt.
