bombast
/ˈbɑmbæst/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.27 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing, padding.
Archaic; Countable; Uncountable
noun
High-sounding words; language above the dignity of the occasion; a pompous or ostentatious manner of writing or speaking.
Countable; Uncountable
verb
To use high-sounding words; to speak or write in a pompous or ostentatious manner.
adj
Big without meaning, or high-sounding; bombastic, inflated; magniloquent.
Example Sentences
- "SURBATING; a Diſtemper in a Horſe, who is ſaid to be ſurbated, when the Sole is worn, bruiſed or ſpoiled by travelling without Shoes, or with ill ſhoeing: [...] take Frankincenſe, and rolling it in a little fine Cotton Wool or Bombaſt, with a hot Iron melt it into the Foot betwixt the Shoe and the Toe, until the Orifice, where the Blood was taken away, is fill'd up; [...]"
- "This strange wool-bearing plant is of the mallow tribe. [...] Another name formerly given to the vegetable fleece was bombast. This word was in use before our ancestors were skilful enough to weave the cotton wool which was brought to them from the East in the merchant ships of Venice and Genoa. What they did not want for candle-wicks, they employed in stuffing and wadding their doublets and other articles of dress."
- "[C]ertayne I am there was neuer any kinde of apparell euer inuented, that could more diſproportion the body of man, then theſe Dublettes with great bellies hanging downe beneath their Pudenda, (as I haue ſayd) & ſtuffed with foure, fiue, or ſixe pound of Bombaſt at the least: [...]"
- "Heere comes leane Iacke, heere comes bare-bone. How now my ſweet Creature of Bombaſt, how long is't agoe, Iacke, ſince thou ſaw'ſt thine owne Knee?"
- "Bombaſt and Buffoonry, by Nature lofty and light, ſoar higheſt of all, [...]"
- "And let burleſque in ballads be employ'd; / Yet noiſy bombaſt carefully avoid, / Nor think to raiſe, tho on Pharſalia's plain, "Millions of mourning mountains of the ſlain:" [...]"
Etymology
From Old French bombace (“cotton, cotton wadding”), from Late Latin bombax (“cotton”), a variant of bombyx (“silkworm”), from Ancient Greek βόμβυξ (bómbux, “silkworm”), possibly related to Middle Persian pmbk' (“cotton”), from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to twist, wind”.
Origin
- Source language: Old French
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈbɑmbæst/
- British English: /ˈbɒmbæst/
Usage
Inflected Forms
bombasts (plural)
bombasts (present, singular)
bombasting (participle, present)
bombasted (participle, past)
bombasted (past)
more bombast (comparative)
most bombast (superlative)