flaunt
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /flɔːnt/
ipa: /flɔnt/
ipa: /flɑnt/
rhymes: -ɔːnt
Forms: form: flaunts
form: flaunting
form: flaunted
form: flaunted
form: flant
Etymology: Of North Germanic origin. Perhaps related to Norwegian flanta (“to show off, wander about”), Icelandic flana (“to rush about, act rashly or heedlessly”) and then also to French flâner (“to wander around, loiter”).
Alternatively, it could be related to Swedish flankt (“loosely, flutteringly”) (compare English flaunt-a-flaunt), from flanka (“waver, hang and wave about, ramble”), a nasalised variant of flakka (“to waver”), related to Middle English flacken (“to move to and fro, flutter, palpitate”). See flack.
Senses: examples: text: The black, rich soil had fed itself with the decay of a long period of time; such as fallen leaves, the petals of flowers, and the stalks and seed-vessels of vagrant and lawless plants, more useful after their death than ever while flaunting in the sun.
ref: 1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
text: Flaunt away, flags of all nations! be duly lower’d at sunset!
ref: 1892, Walt Whitman, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], →OCLC, page 133:
text: At the corner of the bridge, too, I saw one of the common contrasts of that grotesque time—a sheet of paper flaunting against a thicket of the Red Weed, transfixed by a stick that kept it in place.
ref: 1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Wreckage”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, book II (The Earth under the Martians), pages 291–292:
text: The house came into sight, above the cedar grove beyond whose black interstices an apple orchard flaunted in the sunny afternoon.
ref: 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Library of America, published 1985, page 26:
glosses: To wave or flutter smartly in the wind.
examples: text: She’s always flaunting her designer clothes.
text: He pierced with his sombre detachment the plate-glass of ironmongers and saddlers, while Strether flaunted an affinity with the dealers in stamped letter-paper and in smart neckties.
ref: 1903 September 28, Henry James, The Ambassadors, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC:
text: Never one to miss an opportunity to flaunt his wealth, Khashoggi let his yacht be used for the 1983 Bond film Never Say Never Again.
ref: 2017 June 7, Adam Lusher, “Adnan Khashoggi: the 'whoremonger' whose arms deals funded a playboy life of decadence and 'pleasure wives'”, in The Independent, London:
text: Israel has shown – flaunted even – the Mossad’s ability to operate with near impunity in Iran in the past.
ref: 2025 June 14, Tamar Michaelis, Oren Liebermann, Jeremy Diamond, “Israel’s unprecedented attack shows Iran has become a ‘playground’ for the Mossad”, in CNN.com:
glosses: To parade, display with ostentation.
examples: text: You Sot, ſays ſhe, you loyter about Alehouſes and Taverns, ſpend your Time at Billiards, Nine-pins or Puppet-ſhovvs, or flaunt about the Streets in your nevv gilt Chariot, never minding me nor your numerous Family; […]
ref: 1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “How Bull and Frog went to Law with Lord Strutt about the Premisses, and were Joined by the Rest of the Tradesmen”, in Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], London: […] John Morphew, […], →OCLC, pages 8–9:
text: One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade.
ref: 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:
text: [T]he younger belles had begun to flaunt in the French fashions of flimsy muslins, shortwaisted— narrow-skirted.
ref: 1856, Dinah Craik, John Halifax, Chapter VI:
text: […] Mrs. Wix seemed to flaunt there in her finery.
ref: 1897 October 16, Henry James, chapter XXV, in What Maisie Knew, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Herbert S. Stone & Co., →OCLC:
glosses: To show off, as with flashy clothing.
Derived terms: aflaunt
flaunter
flaunty
if you've got it, flaunt it
unflaunted