Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To humbug; boast; lie jestingly.
  • noun Humbug; vain boasting; pretentious falsehood.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Mendacious boasting; falsehood; humbug.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mendacious boasting; falsehood; humbug

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French

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Examples

  • Bertrand was opposite to him, and having listened with delight and reverence to some tale of knavery truly royal, was exclaiming with a look and voice expressive of the most intense admiration, “AH VIEUX BLAGEUR! va!” — the word blague is untranslatable — it means

    The Paris Sketch Book 2006

  • -- the word blague is untranslatable -- it means FRENCH humbug as distinct from all other; and only those who know the value of an epigram in France, an epigram so wonderfully just, a little word so curiously comprehensive, can fancy the kind of rage and rapture with which it was received.

    The Paris Sketch Book William Makepeace Thackeray 1837

  • This foolish "blague" was accompanied by a description of Edison's new "aerophone," a steam machine which carried the voice a distance of one and a half miles.

    Edison, His Life and Inventions Frank Lewis Dyer 1905

  • "blague," but, curious to say, the sequel completely justified both assertions.

    Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 1 Richard Francis Burton 1855

  • Sancta Rufola, la noble patronne de cette blague! mes devises

    Felix et errabunda XVII 2009

  • Sancta Rufola, la noble patronne de cette blague! mes devises

    Riches 2010

  • Sancta Rufola, la noble patronne de cette blague! mes devises

    Felix et errabunda L 2009

  • Sancta Rufola, la noble patronne de cette blague! mes devises

    Un sandwich e un po’ d’indecenza II 2010

  • Sancta Rufola, la noble patronne de cette blague! mes devises

    Happy Fourth! 2009

  • Sancta Rufola, la noble patronne de cette blague! mes devises

    Luna di città di novembre 2009

Comments

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  • a practical joke, playful deception, raillery, etc.

    August 18, 2008

  • hmm… not unlike certain blogs I've seen.

    August 18, 2008

  • The venue in vogue was the stage

    And plays about plague were the rage.

    His ague a blague yet

    Still vaguely on target

    Gave tongue to the fears of the age.

    January 10, 2017