Dictionary entry

Riant

Webster's Dictionary 1913

‖Ri′ant″ (?), a. [F. riant, p. pr. of rire to laugh, L. ridere.] Laughing; laughable; exciting gayety; gay; merry; delightful to the view, as a landscape.

In such cases the sublimity must be drawn from the other sources, with a strict caution, howewer, against anything light and riant. Burke.