BOAST

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does boast mean? 

• BOAST (noun)
  The noun BOAST has 1 sense:

1. speaking of yourself in superlatives

  Familiarity information: BOAST used as a noun is very rare.

• BOAST (verb)
  The verb BOAST has 2 senses:

1. show off

2. wear or display in an ostentatious or proud manner

  Familiarity information: BOAST used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BOAST (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Speaking of yourself in superlatives

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

boast; boasting; jactitation; self-praise

Hypernyms ("boast" is a kind of...):

speech act (the use of language to perform some act)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "boast"):

brag; bragging; crow; crowing; gasconade; line-shooting; vaporing (an instance of boastful talk)

bluster; braggadocio; rhodomontade; rodomontade (vain and empty boasting)

vaunt (extravagant self-praise)

self-assertion (the act of putting forth your own opinions in a boastful or inconsiderate manner that implies you feel superior to others)

Derivation:

boast (show off)

• BOAST (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they boast    ... he / she / it boasts   
Past simple: boasted   
Past participle: boasted   
-ing form: boasting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Show off

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

blow; bluster; boast; brag; gas; gasconade; shoot a line; swash; tout; vaunt

Hypernyms (to "boast" is one way to...):

amplify; exaggerate; hyperbolise; hyperbolize; magnify; overdraw; overstate (to enlarge beyond bounds or the truth)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "boast"):

puff (speak in a blustering or scornful manner)

crow; gloat; triumph (dwell on with satisfaction)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE
Somebody ----s to somebody

Derivation:

boast (speaking of yourself in superlatives)

boaster (a very boastful and talkative person)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Wear or display in an ostentatious or proud manner

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

boast; feature; sport

Context example:

she was sporting a new hat

Hypernyms (to "boast" is one way to...):

feature; have (have as a feature)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

 Context examples 

My father said nothing about her money; but he told me Miss Mason was the boast of Spanish Town for her beauty: and this was no lie.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I haven't much to boast of.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Ah, young sir, the Szekelys—and the Dracula as their heart's blood, their brains, and their swords—can boast a record that mushroom growths like the Hapsburgs and the Romanoffs can never reach.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

What does your boasted immortality amount to when your life runs foul of mine?

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But it is not often that virtue can boast an interest such as this.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I cannot boast of knowing more than half-a-dozen, in the whole range of my acquaintance, that are really accomplished.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I used to boast of my own Anne Elliot, and vouch for your being a very different creature from—She checked herself just in time.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

As to the decision of civil causes, or proceedings against criminals, their precedents are so few, that they have little reason to boast of any extraordinary skill in either.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

In the days that follow March 24, you might want to take a short trip to a sunny location that boasts blue skies and a fresh environment.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

“We have had enough bobance and boasting,” said Hordle John, rising and throwing off his doublet.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)