Flamboyant

Pronunciation

Origin

From French flamboyant ("flaming, wavy"), participle of flamboyer ("to flame"), from Old French flamboier, from flambe ("flame")

Full definition of flamboyant

Adjective

1. Showy, bold or audacious in behaviour, appearance, etc.
• 1902, G. K. Chesterton, , in ,When we see some of the monstrous and flamboyant blossoms that enrich the equatorial woods, we do not feel that they are conflagrations of nature; silent explosions of her frightful energy. We simply find it hard to believe that they are not wax flowers grown under a glass case.
• 1920, Frederic Taber Cooper, , Chapter VI: The Question of Clearness,But a scorn of flamboyant neckties and checkerboard trousers is no excuse for going to the opposite extreme of a blue flannel shirt and overalls; ....
• 1962 May 12, Douglas MacArthur, ,The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase.
2. (architecture) Referred to as the final stage of French Gothic architecture from the 14th to the 16th centuries.
• 1891, Sabine Baring-Gould, , Chapter XIX: Avignon,S. Pierre is a flamboyant church, the details passing into Renaissance.
• 1911, , article in Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition,The second is a chapel of two storeys, the lower dating from 1150, while the upper was rebuilt in the 15th century, and there is a rich Flamboyant entrance with a stairway (1533).
• 1913, , article in Catholic Encyclopedia,The nave and central tower, more flamboyant in design, were finished early in the sixteenth century after the original plan.

Noun

1. A showy tropical tree, the royal poinciana (Delonix regia)
• 1919, William Somerset Maugham, ,The schooners moored to the quay are trim and neat, the little town along the bay is white and urbane, and the flamboyants, scarlet against the blue sky, flaunt their colour like a cry of passion.