/bəʊst/, /boʊst/
OriginFrom 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.
- A brag; ostentatious positive appraisal of oneself.
- Something that one brags about.
“It was his regular boast that he could eat two full English breakfasts in one sitting.”
- A shot where the ball is driven off a side wall and then strikes the front wall.
- intransitiveTo brag; to talk loudly in praise of oneself.
“On no account will he or any other kind be able to boast that he's escaped the pursuit of those who can follow so detailed and comprehensive a method of enquiry.”
- transitive(used with "about" or "of") To speak of with pride, vanity, or exultation, with a view to self-commendation; to extol.
“Lest bad men should boast / Their specious deeds.”
“The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about "creating compelling content", or offering services that let y”
- obsoleteTo speak in exulting language of another; to glory; to exult.
“In God we boast all the day long.”
- To play a boast shot.
- transitiveTo possess (a special and desirable quality).
“The hotel boasts one of the best views of the sea.”
“His family boasted a famous name.”
“The Meinung, Kaoshu, Shalin, and Liukuei Hakka together comprised the army's "Right Unit," and it alone boasted some 3,200 fighting men.”
- To dress, as a stone, with a broad chisel.
- To shape roughly as a preparation for the finer work to follow; to cut to the general form required.
Formsboasts(plural) · boasts(present, singular, third-person) · boasting(participle, present) · boasted(participle, past) · boasted(past)
Source: Wiktionary