brag

plural brags

1. countableuncountableA boast or boasting; bragging; ostentatious pretence or self-glorification.

   Caesar […] made not here his brag / Of "came", and "saw", and "overcame".

   1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]

2. countableuncountableThe thing which is boasted of.

   Beauty is Nature's brag.

   Comus

   1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC

   1 more example

   You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with crushed, split lemongrass and a shredded lime leaf.

   2015 October 27, Matt Preston, The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better, Plum, →ISBN, page 192

3. abbreviationuncountableShort for three card brag.

   our mixed companies here, which, if they happen to rise above bragg and whist, infallibly stop short of every thing either pleasing or instructive

   January 23 1752, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, in Letters to His Son, published in 1774

present singular third person brags · participle present bragging · participle past bragged · past bragged

1. intransitiveoftenwith ofTo boast; to talk with excessive pride about what one has, is able to do, or has done; often as an attempt to popularize oneself.

   to brag of one’s exploits, courage, or money

   1 more example

   Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, / Brags of his substance, not of ornament. / Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade

   c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vi]

   Synonyms: boast, beat one's chest

2. intransitiveobsoleteTo act in an arrogant or boastful manner.

   The dead mans corps hath made ſome Serpents weépe, / Such rewth may ryſe in beaſts of bloudy race: / And yet can man (which bragges aboue the reſt) / Uſe wracke for rewth? can murder like him beſt?

   1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “The Hare, to the Hunter”, in George Gascoigne, transl., The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting. […], London: […] Thomas Purfoot, published 1611, →OCLC, page 177

comparative bragger · superlative braggest

1. Excellent; first-rate.
2. archaicBrisk; full of spirits; boasting; pretentious; conceited.

   a woundy, brag young fellow

   1633 (first performance), Ben Jonson, “A Tale of a Tub. A Comedy […]”, in The Works of Beniamin Jonson, […] (Third Folio), London: […] Thomas Hodgkin, for H[enry] Herringman, E. Brewster, T. Bassett, R[ichard] Chiswell, M. Wotton, G. Conyers, published 1692, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

comparative more brag · superlative most brag

1. obsoleteProudly; boastfully.

   Seest how brag yond bullock beare […]his pricked eares?

   1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Februarie. Ægloga Secunda.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC