flourish

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To grow well or luxuriantly; thrive: The crops flourished in the rich soil.
2. v. To do or fare well; prosper: "No village on the railroad failed to flourish” ( John Kenneth Galbraith).
3. v. To be in a period of highest productivity, excellence, or influence: a poet who flourished in the tenth century.
4. v. To make bold, sweeping movements: The banner flourished in the wind.
5. v. To wield, wave, or exhibit dramatically.
6. n. A dramatic or stylish movement, as of waving or brandishing: "A few ... musicians embellish their performance with a flourish of the fingers” ( Frederick D. Bennett).
7. n. An embellishment or ornamentation: a signature with a distinctive flourish.
8. n. An ostentatious act or gesture: a flourish of generosity.
9. n. Music A showy or ceremonious passage, such as a fanfare.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To bloom; blossom; flower.
2. To thrive under natural forces or conditions; be in a state of natural vigor or development; grow or be developed vigorously.
3. To thrive under social or spiritual forces or relations; be vigorous in action or development; be successful or prosperous.
4. To be in a state of active existence or actual exercise; exist in activity or practice.
5. To make flourishes; use flowery or fanciful embellishments: as, to flourish in writing or speech.
6. To move or be moved in fantastic, irregular figures; play with fantastic or wavering motion.
7. In music: To play an elaborate, ostentatious passage, or to play in an ostentatious or showy manner.
8. To boast; vaunt; brag.
9. To shake; be brandished.
10. To cause to bloom; cause to thrive or grow luxuriantly.
11. To cause to prosper; preserve.
12. To embellish with flourishes, as handwriting, diction, etc.; adorn with flowery or showy words, figures, or lines; in general, to ornament profusely in any way: as, to flourish a signature.
13. To finish with care; enlarge and embellish; elaborate.
14. To brandish; hold in the hand and shake or wave about; hence, to display ostentatiously; flaunt: as, to flourish a sword or a whip; to flourish one's wealth or finery; to flourish one's authority.
15. To gloss over; give a fair appearance to.
16. n. A flourishing condition.
17. n. Showy adornment; decoration; ornament.
18. n. Ostentatious embellishment; ambitious copiousness or amplification; especially, parade of words and figures; rhetorical display.
19. n. A figure formed by bold or fanciful lines or strokes of the pen or graver: as, the flourishes about an initial letter.
20. n. A brandishing; the waving of something held in the hand: as, the flourish of a sword, a cane, or a whip.
21. n. In music: An elaborate but unmeaning passage for display, or as a preparation for real performance.
22. n. A trumpet-call; a fanfare.

Wiktionary

1. v. intransitive To thrive or grow well.
2. v. intransitive To prosper or fare well.
3. v. intransitive To be in a period of greatest influence.
4. v. transitive To make bold, sweeping movements with.
5. n. A dramatic gesture such as the waving of a flag.
6. n. An ornamentation.
7. n. music A ceremonious passage such as a fanfare.
8. n. architecture A decorative embellishment on a building.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To grow luxuriantly; to increase and enlarge, as a healthy growing plant; a thrive.
2. v. To be prosperous; to increase in wealth, honor, comfort, happiness, or whatever is desirable; to thrive; to be prominent and influental; specifically, of authors, painters, etc., to be in a state of activity or production.
3. v. To use florid language; to indulge in rhetorical figures and lofty expressions; to be flowery.
4. v. To make bold and sweeping, fanciful, or wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with fantastic and irregular motion.
5. v. To make ornamental strokes with the pen; to write graceful, decorative figures.
6. v. To execute an irregular or fanciful strain of music, by way of ornament or prelude.
7. v. To boast; to vaunt; to brag.
8. v. obsolete To adorn with flowers orbeautiful figures, either natural or artificial; to ornament with anything showy; to embellish.
9. v. obsolete To embellish with the flowers of diction; to adorn with rhetorical figures; to grace with ostentatious eloquence; to set off with a parade of words.
10. v. To move in bold or irregular figures; to swing about in circles or vibrations by way of show or triumph; to brandish.
11. v. obsolete To develop; to make thrive; to expand.
12. n. Archaic A flourishing condition; prosperity; vigor.
13. n. Decoration; ornament; beauty.
14. n. Something made or performed in a fanciful, wanton, or vaunting manner, by way of ostentation, to excite admiration, etc.; ostentatious embellishment; ambitious copiousness or amplification; parade of words and figures; show.
15. n. A fanciful stroke of the pen or graver; a merely decorative figure.
16. n. A fantastic or decorative musical passage; a strain of triumph or bravado, not forming part of a regular musical composition; a cal; a fanfare.
17. n. The waving of a weapon or other thing; a brandishing.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. move or swing back and forth
2. v. make steady progress; be at the high point in one's career or reach a high point in historical significance or importance
3. v. grow vigorously
4. n. (music) a short lively tune played on brass instruments
5. n. a display of ornamental speech or language
6. n. a showy gesture
7. n. the act of waving
8. n. an ornamental embellishment in writing