flaunt

present singular third person flaunts · participle present flaunting · participle past flaunted · past flaunted · alternative obsolete flant

1. archaicintransitiveTo wave or flutter smartly in the wind.

   Flaunt away, flags of all nations! be duly lower’d at sunset!

   1892, Walt Whitman, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], →OCLC, page 133

   3 more examples

   The black, rich soil had fed itself with the decay of a long period of time; such as fallen leaves, the petals of flowers, and the stalks and seed-vessels of vagrant and lawless plants, more useful after their death than ever while flaunting in the sun.

   1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC

   At the corner of the bridge, too, I saw one of the common contrasts of that grotesque time—a sheet of paper flaunting against a thicket of the Red Weed, transfixed by a stick that kept it in place.

   1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Wreckage”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, book II (The Earth under the Martians), pages 291–292

   The house came into sight, above the cedar grove beyond whose black interstices an apple orchard flaunted in the sunny afternoon.

   1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Library of America, published 1985, page 26

2. transitiveTo parade, display with ostentation.

   Near-synonym: vaunt

   4 more examples

   She’s always flaunting her designer clothes.

   He pierced with his sombre detachment the plate-glass of ironmongers and saddlers, while Strether flaunted an affinity with the dealers in stamped letter-paper and in smart neckties.

   1903 September 28, Henry James, The Ambassadors, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC

   Never one to miss an opportunity to flaunt his wealth, Khashoggi let his yacht be used for the 1983 Bond film Never Say Never Again.

   2017 June 7, Adam Lusher, “Adnan Khashoggi: the 'whoremonger' whose arms deals funded a playboy life of decadence and 'pleasure wives'”, in The Independent, London

   Israel has shown – flaunted even – the Mossad’s ability to operate with near impunity in Iran in the past.

   2025 June 14, Tamar Michaelis, Oren Liebermann, Jeremy Diamond, “Israel’s unprecedented attack shows Iran has become a ‘playground’ for the Mossad”, in CNN.com

   Synonyms: vaunt

3. archaicintransitiveliteraryTo show off, as with flashy clothing.

   One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade.

   1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC

   3 more examples

   You Sot, ſays ſhe, you loyter about Alehouſes and Taverns, ſpend your Time at Billiards, Nine-pins or Puppet-ſhovvs, or flaunt about the Streets in your nevv gilt Chariot, never minding me nor your numerous Family; […]

   1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “How Bull and Frog went to Law with Lord Strutt about the Premisses, and were Joined by the Rest of the Tradesmen”, in Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], London: […] John Morphew, […], →OCLC, pages 8–9

   [T]he younger belles had begun to flaunt in the French fashions of flimsy muslins, shortwaisted— narrow-skirted.

   1856, Dinah Craik, John Halifax, Chapter VI

   […] Mrs. Wix seemed to flaunt there in her finery.

   1897 October 16, Henry James, chapter XXV, in What Maisie Knew, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Herbert S. Stone & Co., →OCLC

   Synonyms: ostentate, preen, swagger, aura farm, boulevardier, cut a wide swath, cut it fat, cut round

plural flaunts · alternative obsolete flant

1. obsoleteAnything displayed for show.

   Should I , in these my borrow'd flaunts, behold The sternness of his presence?

   c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]

present singular third person flaunts · participle present flaunting · participle past flaunted · past flaunted

1. proscribedTo flout.

   Wheeler said companies already are flaunting the rules by offering free or sponsored data services for some products.

   2017 January 20, David Shepardson, “Outgoing FCC chair warns against overturning net neutrality”, in Reuters, archived from the original on 28 Nov 2018

   1 more example

   By that late date, however, the golden age of the lurid paperback book was pretty much over, and the sort of punishment meted out to Aday and Maxey for flaunting the sexual mores of a McCarthyite culture would soon be a thing of the past.

   2001, Susan Stryker, Queer Pulp, page 22