regardant

regardant (not comparable)

(heraldry, of an animal) With the head turned toward the back of the body. [from 15th c.]
- 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 25:
  The dog was waiting for him, her paws on the second tread, pere regardant with a happy lolling tongue.
- 1993, John Banville, Ghosts:
  I see a forked beast squatting on the midden of the world, red-eyed, regardant, gnawing on a shinbone: poor, dumb destroyer.
Watchful, attentive; contemplative. [from 16th c.]
- 1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, II.3:
  To horse, to horse: thus once Eurydice, / With looks regardant, did the Thracian gaze […].
- 1895 October, Stephen Crane, chapter VIII, in The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 84:
  He stood regardant for a moment.
- 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 183:
  And now others, casually regardant, passed the place in automobiles ….