vaunt
Other forms: vaunted; vaunting; vaunts
To vaunt is to brag and boast and flaunt and go on and on about how great something is. It's over-the-top showing off, and when you exaggerate your greatness, you vaunt to the point of no longer seeming so great.
From the Latin vānitāre — which comes from vānus, meaning "vain" or "empty" — vaunt is a verb for taking praise too far or talking something up too much. Even if it's earned or deserved bragging, vaunting about something gets old and loses its impact. Other times, vaunt, as a noun, is a sure sign that a hard sell is going on — someone is talking big but can't deliver.
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show offtypes:puffspeak in a blustering or scornful mannertype of:amplify, exaggerate, hyperbolise, hyperbolize, magnify, overdraw, overstateto enlarge beyond bounds or the truth
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extravagant self-praise
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Vocabulary lists containing vaunt
Brutus is a trusted confidant of the Roman general Julius Caesar, but when he becomes convinced that Caesar's ambitions are a threat to the republic, he plots his friend's assassination.
In this epic poem, clever Odysseus attempts to find his way home after the end of the Trojan War. Learn these words from the translation by Robert Fagles.
No time to scour the headlines or watch the news? No problem! We’ve rounded up the top words heard, read, debated, and discussed this week. This week was full of decisive action. Researchers at the University of Buffalo took a major step towards solving the global clean water crisis by inventing a cheap, efficient water purifier. President Trump kept two campaign promises by instituting stringent border security and by withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal. Is the president enforcing Draconian measures that he will one day come to rue, or will those measures become the vaunted hallmarks of a successful presidency? Only time will tell. Take a look back at the week that was, vocabulary style.