vaunt

English

WOTD – 19 March 2008

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /vɔːnt/
• Rhymes: -ɔːnt
• (some accents) IPA^(key): /vɑːnt/
• Rhymes: -ɑːnt
• (US) IPA^(key): /vɔnt/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /vɑnt/

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Etymology 1

From Middle English vaunten, from Anglo-Norman vaunter, variant of Old French vanter, from Latin vānus (“vain, boastful”).

Verb

vaunt (third-person singular simple present vaunts, present participle vaunting, simple past and past participle vaunted)

1. (intransitive) To speak boastfully.
   • 1829, Washington Irving, chapter XC, in Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada:

     "The number," said he, "is great, but what can be expected from mere citizen soldiers? They vaunt and menace in time of safety; none are so arrogant when the enemy is at a distance; but when the din of war thunders at the gates they hide themselves in terror."

2. (transitive) To speak boastfully about.
3. (transitive) To boast of; to make a vain display of; to display with ostentation.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Cor Cor-Chapter-xiii/#4 xiii:4:

     Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     My vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil.

Synonyms

• (speak boastfully): boast, brag

Derived terms

• vaunter

Translations

speak boastfully — see boast

Noun

vaunt (plural vaunts)

1. An instance of vaunting; a boast.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     the spirits beneath, whom I seduced / with other promises and other vaunts

   • 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     “In every vaunt you make,” she said, “I have my triumph. I single out in you the meanest man I know, the parasite and tool of the proud tyrant, that his wound may go the deeper, and may rankle more. Boast, and revenge me on him! […] ”

   • 1904, Gilbert K[eith] Chesterton, “Enter a Lunatic”, in The Napoleon of Notting Hill, London; New York, N.Y.: John Lane, The Bodley Head, →OCLC, book II, page 106:

     He has answered me back, vaunt for vaunt, rhetoric for rhetoric. He has lifted the only shield I cannot break, the shield of an impenetrable pomposity.

Translations

instance of vaunting

• Bulgarian: хвалба (bg) f (hvalba)
• Finnish: kerskunta
• French: vantardise (fr) f
• Georgian: ტრაბახი (ṭrabaxi), კვეხნა (ḳvexna)
• Romanian: laudă (ro) f, lăudăroșenie (ro) f
• Russian: хвастовство́ (ru) n (xvastovstvó)
• Slovak: chvastanie

Etymology 2

French avant (“before, fore”). See avant, vanguard.

Noun

vaunt (plural vaunts)

1. (obsolete) The first part.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act PROLOGUE, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:

     the vaunt and firstlings of those broils

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “vaunt”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

See also

• vaunt-courier

Anagrams

• Tuvan