different between brandish vs boast

English

Etymology

From Middle English braundischen, from Old French brandiss-, stem of brandir (“to flourish a sword”), from Frankish *brandijan, from Frankish *brand (“firebrand; sword”), from Proto-Germanic *brandaz (“fire; flame; sword”), whence Old English brand (“firebrand; torch”); equivalent to brand +? -ish. More at brand.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?ænd??/
• Rhymes: -ænd??

Verb

brandish (third-person singular simple present brandishes, present participle brandishing, simple past and past participle brandished)

1. (transitive) To move or swing a weapon back and forth, particularly if demonstrating anger, threat or skill.

   He brandished his sword at the pirates.

   • 1819, Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay

     the quivering lance which he brandished bright

   • 1906, Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman:

     Back, he spurred like a madman, shouting a curse to the sky,

     With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!

     Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,

2. (transitive) To bear something with ostentatious show.

   to brandish syllogisms

   • 2011, Jejomar C. Binay, Binay: Blame corruption on modern consumerism, Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation, [1]:

     It sets the stage for cutting corners in our principles just so we can brandish a perceived badge of stature.

Synonyms

• flourish, wave

Translations

Noun

brandish (plural brandishes)

1. The act of flourishing or waving.

Synonyms

• flourish

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /b??st/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /bo?st/
• Rhymes: -??st

Etymology 1

From Middle English bosten, from bost (“boast, glory, noise, arrogance, presumption, pride, vanity”), probably of North Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *bausuz (“inflated, swollen, puffed up, proud, arrogant, bad”). Cognate with Scots bost, boist (“to threaten, brag, boast”), Anglo-Norman bost (“ostentation”) (from Germanic). Related to Norwegian baus (“proud, bold, daring”), dialectal German baustern (“to swell”), German böse (“evil, bad, angry”), Dutch boos (“evil, wicked, angry”), West Frisian boas (“bad, wicked, angry, shrewd, clever”). Compare also dialectal Norwegian bausta, busta (“to rush onward, make a noise”).

Noun

boast (plural boasts)

1. A brag; ostentatious positive appraisal of oneself.
2. Something that one brags about.

3. (squash (sport)) A shot where the ball is driven off a side wall and then strikes the front wall.

Translations

Verb

boast (third-person singular simple present boasts, present participle boasting, simple past and past participle boasted)

1. (intransitive) To brag; to talk loudly in praise of oneself.
   • 2005, Lesley Brown (translator), Plato, Sophist, 235c.

     On no account will he or any other kind be able to boast that he's escaped the pursuit of those who can follow so detailed and comprehensive a method of enquiry.

2. (transitive) To speak of with pride, vanity, or exultation, with a view to self-commendation; to extol.
3. (obsolete) To speak in exulting language of another; to glory; to exult.
4. (squash (sport)) To play a boast shot.
5. (ergative) To possess something special (e.g. as a feature).

Synonyms

• brag

Derived terms

• boastful
• boastfully
• boastworthy
• outboast

Translations

Etymology 2

Verb

boast (third-person singular simple present boasts, present participle boasting, simple past and past participle boasted)

1. (masonry) To dress, as a stone, with a broad chisel.
2. (sculpting) To shape roughly as a preparation for the finer work to follow; to cut to the general form required.

References

• “boast”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

Anagrams

• basto, boats, sabot