bombast Hear it!

bombast Definition

bom·bast (bäm′bast′)

noun

talk or writing that sounds grand or important but has little meaning; pompous language

Etymology: ME, cotton padding < OFr bombace < ML bombax, cotton < bambax, cotton (with form infl. by L bombyx, silk, silkworm < Gr) < LGr < Gr pambax < Pers pambak, cotton

bombast Synonyms

bombast

n.

grandiloquence, rant, fustian, pomposity; see nonsense 1.

bombast Usage Examples

Adjective modifier

  • usual: The production has more of an uptempo Motown " Quiet Storm " feel to it, than the usual sickening 80s bombast.

Noun used with modifier

  • pop: England Made Me is a fine album that ably demonstrates that not all Britpop albums were about trad glamor or novelty pop bombast.
bombast Quotes

Shakespeare†was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. All images of Nature were still present to him, and he drew them, not laboriously, but luckily; when he describes anything, you more than see it, you feel it too. Those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the greater commendation: he was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read Nature; he looked inwards, and found her there† He is many times flat, insipid; his comic wit degenerating into clenches, his serious swelling into bombast. But he is always great.

—Dryden,John

Browse dictionary entries near bombast

  1. ‹ bombardon
  2. ‹ bombardment
  3. ‹ bombardier beetle
  4. ‹ bombardier
  5. ‹ bombard
  6. ‹ bombé
  7. ‹ bomb bay
  8. ‹ bomb
  9. ‹ Bolzano
  10. ‹ bolus
  1. bombastic ›
  2. bombax ›
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