boasting
US/ˈboʊstɪŋ/
boasting is the present participle and gerund of boast.
Noun
boasting (plural boastings)
- The making of boasts.
- An individual boast or bout of boasting.
- Solomon says, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Some, as soon as their vain boastings were uttered, were made monuments of divine justice.1849, Elizabeth Wilson, A Scriptural View of Woman's Rights and Duties, page 367
- After that there were boastings in Hereot! Then did the warriors brag before their stainless queen.1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 28
Meaning of boast
Verb (1)
boast (third-person singular simple present boasts, present participle boasting, simple past and past participle boasted)
- To brag; to talk loudly in praise of oneself.
- On no account will he or any other kind be able to boast that he's escaped the pursuit of those who can follow so detailed and comprehensive a method of enquiry.2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 235c
- [with about or of] To speak of with pride, vanity, or exultation, with a view to self-commendation; to extol.
- Lest bad men should boast / Their specious deeds.1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- To speak in exulting language of another; to glory; to exult.
- In God we boast all the day long.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 44:8
- To play a boast shot.
- To possess (a special and desirable quality).
- The hotel boasts one of the best views of the sea.
Verb (2)
boast (third-person singular simple present boasts, present participle boasting, simple past and past participle boasted)
- To dress, as a stone, with a broad chisel.
Forms of boasting
| plural | boastings |
|---|
Questions about boasting
- What does boasting mean?
- Boasting means the making of boasts.
- What is boasting the present participle and gerund of?
- Boasting is the present participle and gerund of boast.
- What part of speech is boasting?
- Boasting is a noun.
- How do you pronounce boasting?
- Boasting is pronounced /ˈboʊstɪŋ/ (US).
- What is the plural of boasting?
- The plural of boasting is boastings.
Words near boasting in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: boasting (page history and authors); boast (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-boasting.wav.
Cite this entry: “boasting.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/boasting. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.