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bombast

noun
/ˈbɒmbæst/UK/ˈbɑmbæst/US/ˈbʌmbæst/

Etymology

From Old French bombace (“cotton, cotton wadding”), from Late Latin bombax (“cotton”), a variant of bombyx (“silkworm”), from Ancient Greek βόμβυξ (bómbux, “silkworm”), possibly related to Middle Persian pmbk' (“cotton”), from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to twist, wind”.

  1. derived from pmbk' — “cotton”
  2. derived from βόμβυξ — “silkworm”
  3. derived from bombax — “cotton”
  4. derived from bombace — “cotton, cotton wadding”

Definitions

  1. Cotton, or cotton wool.

  2. Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments

    Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing, padding.

    • Heere comes leane Iacke, heere comes bare-bone. How now my ſweet Creature of Bombaſt, how long is't agoe, Iacke, ſince thou ſaw'ſt thine owne Knee?

  3. High-sounding words

    High-sounding words; language above the dignity of the occasion; a pompous or ostentatious manner of writing or speaking.

    • Bombaſt and Buffoonry, by Nature lofty and light, ſoar higheſt of all, [...]
    • And let burleſque in ballads be employ'd; / Yet noiſy bombaſt carefully avoid, / Nor think to raiſe, tho on Pharſalia's plain, "Millions of mourning mountains of the ſlain:" [...]
  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. To swell or fill out

      To swell or fill out; to inflate, to pad.

    2. To use high-sounding words

      To use high-sounding words; to speak or write in a pompous or ostentatious manner.

      • [']The ugly truth is, Gerald,' she said viciously, 'that you're a phoney, a rotten, bombasting phoney, trying to cover up from all the world,[…][']

    3. Big without meaning, or high-sounding

      Big without meaning, or high-sounding; bombastic, inflated; magniloquent.

      • But he (as louing his owne pride, and purpoſes) / Euades them, with a bumbaſt Circumſtance, / Horribly ſtufft with Epithites of warre, / Non-ſuites my Mediators.
      • 'Tis not ſuch Lines as almoſt crack the Stage. / When Bajazet begins to rage. / Nor a tall Met'phor in the Bombaſt way, / Nor the dry chips of ſhort-lung'd Seneca.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for bombast. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA