Boast

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -əʊst

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

Full definition of boast

Noun

1. A brag, a loud positive appraisal of oneself.
2. (squash) A shot where the ball is driven off a side wall and then strikes the front wall.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To brag; to talk loudly in praise of oneself.
• 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. Stephanus pagination.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.
• John MiltonLest bad men should boast
  Their specious deeds.
• 2013-06-21, Oliver Burkeman, The tao of tech, The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about "creating compelling content", or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",...and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
3. (obsolete) To speak in exulting language of another; to glory; to exult.
• Bible, Psalms xiiv. 8In God we boast all the day long.
4. (squash) To play a Squash_(sport)#Types_of_shots_played.
5. (ergative) To possess something special.
   The hotel boasts one of the best views of the sea.
   His family boasted a famous name.

Synonyms

• brag

Derived terms

• boastful
• boastfully
• outboast

Verb

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.

Anagrams

• boats
• sabot