boast

== English == === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /bəʊst/ (General American) IPA(key): /boʊst/ Rhymes: -əʊst === Etymology 1 === From Middle English bosten, from bost (“boast, glory, noise, arrogance, presumption, pride, vanity”), probably of North Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *bausuz (“inflated, swollen, puffed up, proud, arrogant, bad”). Cognate with Scots bost, boist (“to threaten, brag, boast”), Anglo-Norman bost (“ostentation”) (from Germanic). Related to Norwegian baus (“proud, bold, daring”), dialectal German baustern (“to swell”), German böse (“evil, bad, angry”), Dutch boos (“evil, wicked, angry”), West Frisian boas (“bad, wicked, angry, shrewd, clever”). Compare also dialectal Norwegian bausta, busta (“to rush onward, make a noise”). Possible doublet of boost. ==== Noun ==== boast (plural boasts) A brag; ostentatious positive appraisal of oneself. Something that one brags about. (squash) A shot where the ball is driven off a side wall and then strikes the front wall. ===== Translations ===== ==== Verb ==== boast (third-person singular simple present boasts, present participle boasting, simple past and past participle boasted) (intransitive) To brag; to talk loudly in praise of oneself. (transitive) (used with "about" or "of") To speak of with pride, vanity, or exultation, with a view to self-commendation; to extol. (obsolete) To speak in exulting language of another; to glory; to exult. (squash) To play a boast shot. (transitive) To possess (a special and desirable quality). ===== Synonyms ===== brag, crow, vaunt ===== Antonyms ===== depreciate ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Translations ===== === Etymology 2 === (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.) ==== Verb ==== boast (third-person singular simple present boasts, present participle boasting, simple past and past participle boasted) (masonry) To dress, as a stone, with a broad chisel. (sculpting) To shape roughly as a preparation for the finer work to follow; to cut to the general form required. ===== Translations ===== === References === “boast”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. === Anagrams === basto, boats, sabot