BRAG (bragged, bragging)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: bragged    , bragging   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does brag mean? 

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

1. an instance of boastful talk

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

• BRAG (adjective)
  The adjective BRAG has 1 sense:

1. exceptionally good

  Familiarity information: BRAG used as an adjective is very rare.

• BRAG (verb)
  The verb BRAG has 1 sense:

1. show off

  Familiarity information: BRAG used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BRAG (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An instance of boastful talk

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

brag; bragging; crow; crowing; gasconade; line-shooting; vaporing

Context example:

whenever he won we were exposed to his gasconade

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

boast; boasting; jactitation; self-praise (speaking of yourself in superlatives)

Derivation:

brag (show off)

braggy (exhibiting self-importance)

• BRAG (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Exceptionally good

Synonyms:

boss; brag

Context example:

his brag cornfield

Similar:

superior (of high or superior quality or performance)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

• BRAG (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they brag    ... he / she / it brags   
Past simple: bragged   
Past participle: bragged   
-ing form: bragging   

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 "brag" 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 "brag"):

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:

brag (an instance of boastful talk)

braggart; bragger (a very boastful and talkative person)

 Context examples 

He was not bragging, not showing off.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Then they can brag all their lives that they had hit Tom Owen.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Ain't you, by G—? If you make a brag of your honesty to me,” said the tinker, “I'll knock your brains out.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

At the end of half an hour one man stated that his dog could start a sled with five hundred pounds and walk off with it; a second bragged six hundred for his dog; and a third, seven hundred.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

They were, in fact, a necessitous family; numerous, too, almost beyond example; by no means respected in their own neighbourhood, as he had lately had particular opportunities of discovering; aiming at a style of life which their fortune could not warrant; seeking to better themselves by wealthy connections; a forward, bragging, scheming race.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

"Please don't think I'm bragging," he began.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"You remember the other time I was here I said I couldn't talk about books an' things because I didn't know how? Well, I've ben doin' a lot of thinkin' ever since. I've ben to the library a whole lot, but most of the books I've tackled have ben over my head. Mebbe I'd better begin at the beginnin'. I ain't never had no advantages. I've worked pretty hard ever since I was a kid, an' since I've ben to the library, lookin' with new eyes at books—an' lookin' at new books, too—I've just about concluded that I ain't ben reading the right kind. You know the books you find in cattle- camps an' fo'c's'ls ain't the same you've got in this house, for instance. Well, that's the sort of readin' matter I've ben accustomed to. And yet—an' I ain't just makin' a brag of it—I've ben different from the people I've herded with. Not that I'm any better than the sailors an' cow-punchers I travelled with,—I was cow-punchin' for a short time, you know,—but I always liked books, read everything I could lay hands on, an'—well, I guess I think differently from most of 'em.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)