Lexic.us

Definition of Flourish

1. Verb. Grow vigorously. "The business is going to flourish "; "Business is booming"

2. Noun. A showy gesture. "She entered with a great flourish"

3. Verb. Make steady progress; be at the high point in one's career or reach a high point in historical significance or importance. "The new student is thriving"

4. Noun. An ornamental embellishment in writing.

5. Verb. Move or swing back and forth. "She waved her gun"

6. Noun. A display of ornamental speech or language.

7. Noun. The act of waving.

8. Noun. (music) a short lively tune played on brass instruments. "Her arrival was greeted with a rousing fanfare"

Definition of Flourish

1. v. i. To grow luxuriantly; to increase and enlarge, as a healthy growing plant; a thrive.

2. v. t. To adorn with flowers orbeautiful figures, either natural or artificial; to ornament with anything showy; to embellish.

3. n. A flourishing condition; prosperity; vigor.

Definition of Flourish

1. Verb. (intransitive) To thrive or grow well. ¹

2. Verb. (intransitive) To prosper or fare well. ¹

3. Verb. (intransitive) To be in a period of greatest influence. ¹

4. Verb. (transitive) To make bold, sweeping movements with. ¹

5. Noun. A dramatic gesture such as the waving of a flag. ¹

6. Noun. An ornamentation. ¹

7. Noun. (music) A ceremonious passage such as a fanfare. ¹

8. Noun. (architecture) A decorative embellishment on a building. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Flourish

1. to thrive [v -ED, -ING, -ES] - See also: thrive

Medical Definition of Flourish

1. 1. To grow luxuriantly; to increase and enlarge, as a healthy growing plant; a thrive. "A tree thrives and flourishes in a kindly . . . Soil." (Bp. Horne) 2. To be prosperous; to increase in wealth, honor, comfort, happiness, or whatever is desirable; to thrive; to be prominent and influental; specifically, of authors, painters, etc, to be in a state of activity or production. "When all the workers of iniquity do flourish." (Ps. Xcii 7) "Bad men as frequently prosper and flourish, and that by the means of their wickedness." (Nelson) "We say Of those that held their heads above the crowd, They flourished then or then." (Tennyson) 3. To use florid language; to indulge in rhetorical figures and lofty expressions; to be flowery. "They dilate . . . And flourish long on little incidents." (J. Watts) 4. To make bold and sweeping, fanciful, or wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with fantastic and irregular motion. "Impetuous spread The stream, and smoking flourished o'er his head." (Pope) 5. To make ornamental strokes with the pen; to write graceful, decorative figures. 6. To execute an irregular or fanciful strain of music, by way of ornament or prelude. "Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus?" (Shak) 7. To boast; to vaunt; to brag. Origin: OE. Florisshen, flurisshen, OF. Flurir, F. Fleurir, fr. L. Florere to bloom, fr. Flos, floris, flower. See Flower, and -ish. 1. A flourishing condition; prosperity; vigor. "The Roman monarchy, in her highest flourish, never had the like." (Howell) 2. Decoration; ornament; beauty. "The flourish of his sober youth Was the pride of naked truth." (Crashaw) 3. Something made or performed in a fanciful, wanton, or vaunting manner, by way of ostentation, to excite admiration, etc.; ostentatious embellishment; ambitious copiousness or amplification; parade of word and figures; show; as, a flourish of rhetoric or of wit. "He lards with flourishes his long harangue." (Dryden) 4. A fanciful stroke of the pen or graver; a merely decorative figure. "The neat characters and flourishes of a Bible curiously printed." (Boyle) 5. A fantastic or decorative musical passage; a strain of triumph or bravado, not forming part of a regular musical composition; a cal; a fanfare. "A flourish, trumpets! strike alarum, drums!" (Shak) 6. The waving of a weapon or other thing; a brandishing; as, the fluorish of a sword. 1. To adorn with flowers orbeautiful figures, either natural or artificial; to ornament with anything showy; to embellish. 2. To embellish with the flowers of diction; to adorn with rhetorical figures; to grace with ostentatious eloquence; to set off with a parade of words. "Sith that the justice of your title to him Doth flourish the deceit." (Shak) 3. To move in bold or irregular figures; to swing about in circles or vibrations by way of show or triumph; to brandish. "And flourishes his blade in spite of me." (Shak) 4. To develop; to make thrive; to expand. "Bottoms of thread . . . Which with a good needle, perhaps may be flourished into large works." (Bacon) Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Flourish

flour beetle flour bin flour corn flour gold flour mill flour treatment agent flour treatment agents flour weevil floured flourier

flouriest flourily flourine flouriness flouring flourish (current term) flourished flourisher flourishers flourishes

flourishest flourisheth flourishing flourishingly flourishings flourless flourlike flourodeoxyglucose flours floury

Literary usage of Flourish

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Publications (1848)
"I shall more fully answer to this on Jerome's flourish in speech, and show that it the weeds be kept out of the hla church' L .... garden of the church, ..."

Other Resources: