|
|
Definition of Bombast
1. Noun. Pompous or pretentious talk or writing.
Generic synonyms: Grandiloquence, Grandiosity, Magniloquence, Ornateness, Rhetoric
Derivative terms: Bombastic, Rant
Definition of Bombast
1. n. Originally, cotton, or cotton wool.
2. a. High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent; bombastic.
3. v. t. To swell or fill out; to pad; to inflate.
Definition of Bombast
1. Noun. Originally, cotton, or cotton wool. ¹
2. Noun. Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing; padding. ¹
3. Noun. (figuratively) High-sounding words; an inflated style; language above the dignity of the occasion; fustian. ¹
4. Verb. To swell or fill out; to pad; to inflate. ¹
5. Adjective. High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent; bombastic. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Bombast
1. pompous language [n -S]
Lexicographical Neighbors of Bombast
Literary usage of Bombast
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the by Charles George Herbermann (1913)
"Yet he was not a great genius; he was rather a minor poet of a facile vein, able
to express himself simply, and to avoid the bombast and the sensuality so ..."
2. The Rise of the Dutch Republic: A History. by John Lothrop Motley (1861)
"... inclined to bombast, lie might have answered the churchman's calumny, as Caesar
the soothsayer's -Danger knows full well That Cassar is more dangerous ..."
3. Daniel Defoe: His Life and Recently Discovered Writings: Extending from 1716 by Lee, William, Daniel Defoe (1869)
"A Piece of Oriental bombast. AJ, Jan. 4, 1724.—Sir, The following Letter coming
unexpectedly to my Hands upon the Situation of the Affairs in the Eastern ..."
4. Dionysius Longinus On the Sublime by Longinus (1800)
"Shakespeare has fallen into the same kind of bombast: : the southern wind Doth
play the trumpet to his purposes. First Part of Henry IV. such ..."
5. The Anatomy of melancholy v. 3 by Robert Burton (1875)
"All the bombast epithets, pathetical adjuncts, incomparably fair, curiously neat,
divine, sweet, dainty, delicious, &c., pretty diminutives, ..."
Other Resources:
