peccant

adj

1. (archaic)Of a person, etc.: that commits or has committed an offence or a sin; blameworthy, culpable, offending, sinful, sinning.

   “But let us call to Synod all the Bleſt / Through Heav'ns wide bounds; from them I will not hide / My judgments, how with Mankind I proceed, / As how with peccant Angels late they ſaw; / And in thir ſtate, though firm, ſtood more confirmd.”

   “[T]hat a peccant Creature ſhould diſapprove, and repent of every Violation of, and Declination from the Rules of juſt and honeſt, this, right Reaſon diſcourſing upon the Stock of its ovvn Principles, could not but infer.”

   “Syndic Gutzmar and the peccant Officials being summoned out to Strehlen, it had been asked of them, "Do you know this Letter?" Upon which they fell on their knees, "Ach Ihro Majestät [Oh Your Majesty]!" unable to deny their handwriting; […]”

   “[He] was bereaving his houses of the matronly government, deprived of which they were all of them likely soon to be at sixes and sevens with disorderly lacqueys, peccant maids, and cooks in hysterics.”

   “[T]he fact that the peccant doctor [Sir James Clark, 1st Baronet] continued in the Queen's service made the Hastings family irreconcilable and produced an unpleasant impression of unrepentant error upon the public mind.”

2. (archaic)Of an action or thing: causing offence or sin; offensive, sinful.

   “[O]ur ovvne Statutes […] preciſely prohibit the ſatyricall depraving, traducing, or derogation of the Common Prayer-Booke, and of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in any Enterludes, Playes or Rimes, (in vvhich kinde Playes had been formerly peccant) under ſevere penalties.”

   “[T]he VVorld is novv ſo peccant upon this Account, that I am afraid Inſtances vvould be miſtaken for Invectives.”

3. (also, archaic, figuratively, historical)Especially of humours of the body: diseased, unhealthy; also, causing disease.

   “Thus haue I deſcribed and opened as by a kinde of diſſection, thoſe peccant humors (the principall of them) vvhich hath not onely giuen impediment to the proficence of Learning, but haue giuen alſo occaſion, to the traducement thereof: […]”

   “I am truly sorry that I cannot accompany you in your ride this morning, owing to a violent pain in my face, arising from a wart to which I by medical advice applied a caustic. Whether I put too much, I do not know, but the consequence is, that not only I have been put to some pain, but the peccant part and its immediate environ are as black as if the printer's devil had marked me for an author.”

   “And we have a certain instinct, that where is great amount of life, though gross and peccant, it has its own checks and purifications, and will be found at last in harmony with moral laws.”

4. (archaic, obsolete)Offending a norm, a rule, etc.; defective, faulty, wrong.

   “Nor is the Party cited bound to appear, if the Citation be evidently peccant in point of Form or Matter.”

   “Olive rested her eyes for some moments upon Mrs. Luna, without speaking. Then she said: 'Your veil is not put on straight, Adeline.' / 'I look like a monster—that, evidently, is what you mean!' Adeline exclaimed, going to the mirror to rearrange the peccant tissue.”

noun

1. (archaic, obsolete)An offender; also, a sinner.

   “Yet this conceitedneſſe and Itch of being taken for a Counſellour, maketh more Reprovers, than Peccants in the vvorld.”