vaunt

English

WOTD – 19 March 2008

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: vônt, IPA^(key): /vɔːnt/
• (US) enPR: vônt, IPA^(key): /vɔnt/
  • (cot–caught merger) enPR: vänt, IPA^(key): /vɑnt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːnt

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], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →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], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →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

From 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

References

• “vaunt”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

See also

• vaunt-courier

Anagrams

• Tuvan