Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Bragging or blustering manner or behavior.
  • noun A fanfare.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A swaggering; vain boasting; ostentation; bluster.
  • To make a flourish or display; bluster.

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

  • noun A swaggering; vain boasting; ostentation; a bluster.

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

  • noun Empty boasting, wildly self-assertive

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French fanfaronnade, from Spanish fanfarronada, bluster, from fanfarrón, a braggart, perhaps from Arabic farfār, talkative, from farfara, to become agitated, become talkative.]

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Examples

  • —Your aunt, Scrotes persisted, after the merest sniff, has remarked what she calls your fanfaronade.

    At Swim, Two Boys Jamie O’Neill 2002

  • —Your aunt, Scrotes persisted, after the merest sniff, has remarked what she calls your fanfaronade.

    At Swim, Two Boys Jamie O’Neill 2002

  • Among these, the chief was Dr. Gray, who was an enemy to every thing that approached to fanfaronade, and knew enough of the world to lay it down as a sort of general rule, that he who talks a great deal of fighting is seldom a brave soldier, and he who always speaks about wealth is seldom a rich man at bottom.

    The Surgeon's Daughter 2008

  • But I see no pride, only a wallowing in fanfaronade.

    At Swim, Two Boys Jamie O’Neill 2002

  • But I see no pride, only a wallowing in fanfaronade.

    At Swim, Two Boys Jamie O’Neill 2002

  • The heavens added to the noise with a fanfaronade of thunder, which inspired the crocodile to bellow in response.

    The Golden Torc May, Julian, 1931- 1981

  • About this time I read a cable report that the gorilla Castelo Branco -- this individual is the (pause) president of Brazil -- and I do not know in what ceremony, in any of those ceremonies that are seen when they have them there -- it is said that he launched a fanfaronade.

    13TH ANNIVERSARY OF ATTACK ON MONCADA BARRACKS 1966

  • This fanfaronade and these challenges launched by Castelo Branco are ridiculous, because they know that this is not our task -- it is the work of the Brazilians.

    13TH ANNIVERSARY OF ATTACK ON MONCADA BARRACKS 1966

  • Every day a table of thirty covers was laid for those whom he chose to invite; he dined in public -- a fanfaronade of trumpets proclaiming his down-sitting and his up-rising -- and the people thronged the banqueting-hall in such numbers that barriers had to be erected in the middle of it to keep the obtrusive multitude at a respectful distance.

    Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton Anonymous

  • But now that he had grown deaf to the fanfaronade of such words and clearly saw the framework on which they were constructed, how was he to keep pace with the young who were a credulous echo of every speech they heard?

    Menschen im Krieg. English Andreas Latzko 1909

Comments

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  • how excruciating two decades later, those blowsy fanfaronades of the prose . . .
    Julie Schumacher, Dear Committee Members (New York: Doubleday, 2014)

    December 26, 2015

  • His duty and truth are betrayed

    With every new rodomontade.

    His coarse conversation

    Is tergiversation,

    His speeches sheer fanfaronade.

    October 21, 2018