bombast
UK /ˈbɒmbæst/ · US /ˈbɑmbæst/ noun, verb, adjective
Forms bombasts bombasting bombasted
- noun (archaic) Cotton, or cotton wool.
- noun (archaic) Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing, padding.
- noun (figurative) High-sounding words; language above the dignity of the occasion; a pompous or ostentatious manner of writing or speaking.
- verb To swell or fill out; to inflate, to pad.
- verb To use high-sounding words; to speak or write in a pompous or ostentatious manner.
- adjective Big without meaning, or high-sounding; bombastic, inflated; magniloquent.
Synonyms
fustian aureation bombard phrase grandiloquence purple prose aureate highfalutin rant claptrap blah
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”.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Originally, cotton, or cotton wool. [Obs.]
- noun Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing; padding. [Obs.]
- adjective High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent; bombastic.
- verb To swell or fill out; to pad; to inflate. [Obs.]
Etymology [OF. bombace cotton, LL. bombax cotton, bombasium a doublet of cotton; hence, padding, wadding, fustian. See Bombazine.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bombast”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details