Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To exhibit ostentatiously or shamelessly: flaunts his knowledge. See Synonyms at show.
- v. Usage Problem To show contempt for; scorn.
- v. To parade oneself ostentatiously; show oneself off.
- v. To wave grandly: pennants flaunting in the wind.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To wave or flutter smartly in the wind.
- To make a smart show in apparel or equipment of any kind; make an ostentatious or brazen display; move or act ostentatiously or brazenly; be glaring or gaudy: sometimes with an indefinite it: as, a flaunting show.
- To display ostentatiously, impudently, or offensively: as, to flaunt rich apparel.
- n. The act of flaunting.
- n. Anything displayed for show; finery.
- n. A boast; a vaunt; a brag.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive, obsolete To wave or flutter smartly in the wind.
- v. transitive To parade, display with ostentation.
- v. intransitive (archaic or literary) To show off with flashy clothing.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To throw or spread out; to flutter; to move ostentatiously.
- v. To display ostentatiously; to make an impudent show of.
- n. obsolete Anything displayed for show.
WordNet 3.0
- v. display proudly; act ostentatiously or pretentiously
- n. the act of displaying something ostentatiously
Etymologies
- Of North Germanic origin, related to Norwegian flanta ("to show off, wander about"), Icelandic flana ("to rush about, act rashly or heedlessly"); or perhaps related to Swedish flankt ("loosely, flutteringly"; compare English flaunt-a-flaunt), from Swedish flanka ("waver, hang and wave about, ramble"), a nasalised variant of Swedish flakka ("to waver"), related to Middle English flacken ("to move to and fro, flutter, palpitate"), see flack. (Wiktionary)
- Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The actors, dubbed in English, flaunt bold, black leather spacesuits as they bravely march through stage fog on a set aglow in strange popsicle colors.”
“It is a deeply incisive explanation of how we all begin, how we plod on, and how we approach the end -- we are always looking for a theory or an idea to bring cohesion to the chaos that is life, whether it be the career we choose (or reject) or the spouse we adore (or don't) or the label we flaunt ("free-spirit," "dependable," "respectable").”
The Huffington Post: Nina Sankovitch: The Story of Life: How It All Began by Penelope Lively
“To flaunt is to make an ostentatious or defiant display: She flaunted her beauty.”
Simon & Schuster: Essential Guide to Business Style and Usage
“I don't know what many people are referring to when they describe them as wanting to "flaunt" it.”
“With faux compassion, they say – well, this is what happens if you "flaunt" your sexuality by behaving like everybody else.”
“Perhaps another was that -- was not knowing the difference between "flaunt" and "flout.”
“HEDREN: It's very important to be very, very special, and have that -- that, you know -- I think people who kind of flaunt all of it are -- I don't find that very interesting.”
CNN Transcript - Larry King Live: How Can Women Make Beauty Last, Inside and Out? - June 8, 2000
“Gays and lesbians in Uganda were free to follow their own sexual orientation as long as they did not "flaunt" it in public and disobeyed the law, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni in Durban on”
“All culture, all art, without this, must be but rootless flowers, such as flaunt round a nation's decay.”
“Second, members of the military need not "flaunt" their homosexuality in order to be discharged under DADT.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘flaunt’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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EN - confusables
Similar words meaning different things
torturous, wreathe, tortuous, wreath, titivate, titillate, stationary, storey, septic, principal, principle, story and 134 more...
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Artistic words
Good for poetry, or just artistic on their own.
fluxus, gallant, kinetic, lurk, disengage, mist, agleam, voyeur, devoid, crimson, ebony, azure and 94 more...
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Words of seduction
nibble, caress, writhing, whisper, penetrate, lick, flushed, passionate, embrace, nudity, intimacy, tempt and 17 more...
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portmanteaus
slithy, chortle, mimsy, galumph, maffluent, smog, motel, momentaneous, splisters, swifting, editated, splatter and 73 more...
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wajo22's list
signation, genuflection, precosmic, pretemporal, precreative, pre-hexameral, preplanetary, pre-terrestrial, antemundane,
antemundane, signation, genuflection, precosmic, pretemporal, precreative, pre-hexameral, preplanetary, keeperess, trichotillomania, deerstalker, danseur and 99 more...
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capitalcreative's Words
deviltry, visceral, cassanova, assuage, genesis, hot minute, osmosis, wistful, sublime, loathe, farfetched, newfangled and 283 more...
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ChortleGiggleSnort
Significant Words- Guiding you on your path to Snazzibility
flimsy, feeble, ranting, ramble, narky, snazzy, yoghurt, bulbous, pustule, globulous, geranium, megalomaniac and 521 more...
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What Do You Mean ?
U Gotta Know These.......
falter, ruddy, flounder, pallid, fumble, founder, labile, titular, tacit, pragmatic, fatalism, jaded and 112 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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And another
retrocausality, brusque, gainsay, cheerio, jaundiced, chamois, caw, craw, fudge, bubbler, shebang, bolo and 244 more...
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beatricks's Words
tremendous, naiad, thrush, samsara, thronging, nascent, broom, aristeia, streak, susurrant, reverberate, resistentialism and 352 more...
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DreamieGrl's Words
integral, serendipidy, cordial, interesting, crucial, placate, superfluous, supercilious, scintillating, lush, tryst, mythical and 111 more...
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amy's GRE 2012
gimmicks, kowtow, unpretentious, skeptical, cynical, somber, prevaricate, equivocate, requisite, embellish, impregnable, procrastinate and 307 more...
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Whatever Works (2009)
Words from 2009 'Whatever Works' film.
fault, racket, unto, flaw, fallacious, notion, decent, embalm, filch, delusion, delusions of gran..., grandeur and 135 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for flaunt.
slumry Sometimes confused with flout. Jul 12, 2007