ostentate

present singular third person ostentates · participle present ostentating · participle past ostentated · past ostentated

1. raretransitiveTo make an ambitious display of; to exhibit or show boastingly.First known use c. 1540

   Society insisted that it was bad form to ostentate one's sickness unnecessarily.

   1988, R. Porter & D. Porter, chapter XI, in In Sickness & in Health, page 191

   1 more example

   It cannot avoid the brand of arrogancy, as well as hypocrisy, to challenge and ostentate that beauty or handsomeness of complexion as ours, which indeed is none of ours by any genuine right or property.

   1701, John Gauden (attributed), Several Letters between Two Ladies Wherein the Lawfulness and Unlawfulness of Artificial Beauty

   Synonyms: ostent

2. intransitiveobsoleterareTo boast, show off.First known use 1670-1822

   Synonyms: exhibitionize, ostent, swagger, aura farm, boulevardier, cut a wide swath, cut it fat, cut round