Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
vaunt. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
vaunt, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
vaunt in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
vaunt you have here. The definition of the word
vaunt will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
vaunt, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English vaunten, from Anglo-Norman vaunter, variant of Old French vanter, from Latin vānus (“vain, boastful”).
Verb
vaunt (third-person singular simple present vaunts, present participle vaunting, simple past and past participle vaunted)
- (intransitive) To speak boastfully.
1829, Washington Irving, chapter XC, in Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada:"The number," said he, "is great, but what can be expected from mere citizen soldiers? They vaunt and menace in time of safety; none are so arrogant when the enemy is at a distance; but when the din of war thunders at the gates they hide themselves in terror."
- (transitive) To speak boastfully about.
- (transitive) To boast of; to make a vain display of; to display with ostentation.
1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:My vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
speak boastfully
— see boastNoun
vaunt (plural vaunts)
- An instance of vaunting; a boast.
1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:the spirits beneath, whom I seduced / with other promises and other vaunts
1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1848, →OCLC:“In every vaunt you make,” she said, “I have my triumph. I single out in you the meanest man I know, the parasite and tool of the proud tyrant, that his wound may go the deeper, and may rankle more. Boast, and revenge me on him! […] ”
1904, Gilbert K[eith] Chesterton, “Enter a Lunatic”, in The Napoleon of Notting Hill, London; New York, N.Y.: John Lane, The Bodley Head, →OCLC, book II, page 106:He has answered me back, vaunt for vaunt, rhetoric for rhetoric. He has lifted the only shield I cannot break, the shield of an impenetrable pomposity.
Translations
Etymology 2
French avant (“before, fore”). See avant, vanguard.
Noun
vaunt (plural vaunts)
- (obsolete) The first part.
c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act PROLOGUE, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:the vaunt and firstlings of those broils
See also
Anagrams