braggart

plural braggarts · alternative braggard

1. Someone who constantly brags or boasts.First known use late 16th c.

   O I could play the woman with mine eyes, / And Braggart with my tongue.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 148, column 1

   2 more examples

   Shallow water gives a great splash, and so a braggart has ever been contemptible in my eyes.

   1889, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Of the Welcome that Met Me at Badminton”, in Micah Clarke His Statement as Made to His Three Grandchildren Joseph, Gervas, & Reuben during the Hard Winter of 1734 [...], London: Longmans, Green and Co. and New York, 15 East 15th Street, →OCLC, page 256

   A very good resolve to make and keep, if you would also keep any friends you make, is never to speak of anyone without, in imagination, having them overhear what you say. One often hears the exclamation “I would say it to her face!” At least be very sure that this is true, and not a braggart’s phrase and then—nine times out of ten think better of it and refrain.

   1922 July, Emily Post, “Conversation”, in Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home, New York, N.Y.: Funk & Wagnalls, published October 1923, →OCLC, page 56

   Synonyms: bragger, blower, blowhard, blusterer, boaster, braggadocian, braggadocio, bragger

comparative more braggart · superlative most braggart

1. Characterized by boasting; boastful.

   O my fair Mistress, Truth! Shall I quit thee, / For huffing, braggart, puft Nobility?

   1733, [Alexander Pope], The Impertinent, or A Visit to the Court. A Satyr. By an Eminent Hand, London: Printed for John Wileord,^([sic – meaning Wilford]) behind the Chapter-house near St. Paul's, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Jan 2018, page 13

   2 more examples

   Captain [Benjamin] Bonneville was delighted with the game look of these cavaliers of the mountains, welcomed them heartily to his camp, and ordered a free allowance of grog to regale them, which soon put them in the most braggart spirits.

   1837, Washington Irving, chapter VII, in Adventures of Captain Bonneville, or Scenes beyond the Rocky Mountains of the Far West, Paris: Published by A. and W. Galignani and Co., rue Vivienne, No. 18, →OCLC, page 49

   He took him on the long walks of which he was fond, and made him in some sort his humble confidant, talking to him of himself and his plans with large and braggart vagueness.

   1882, William D[ean] Howells, chapter VI, in A Modern Instance: A Novel, Boston, Mass.: James R. Osgood and Company, →OCLC, page 70