Word.ws English Dictionary

brag

/bɹæɡ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/bɹaɡ/

brag noun: a boast or boasting; bragging; ostentatious pretence or self-glorification. Also the abbreviation of three card brag.

Noun

brag (countable and uncountable, plural brags)

  1. A boast or boasting; bragging; ostentatious pretence or self-glorification.
    • Caesar […] made not here his brag / Of "came", and "saw", and "overcame".1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
  2. The thing which is boasted of.
    • Beauty is Nature's brag.1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey...
    • You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with...2015 October 27, Matt Preston, The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better, Plum, →ISBN, page 192

Verb

brag (third-person singular simple present brags, present participle bragging, simple past and past participle bragged)

  1. (intransitive, often, with-of) To boast; to talk with excessive pride about what one has, is able to do, or has done; often as an attempt to popularize oneself.
    • to brag of one’s exploits, courage, or money
    • Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, / Brags of his substance, not of ornament. / Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shadec. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To act in an arrogant or boastful manner.
    • The dead mans corps hath made ſome Serpents weépe, / Such rewth may ryſe in beaſts of bloudy race: / And yet can man (which bragges aboue the reſt) / Uſe wracke for rewth? can murder like him beſt?1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “The Hare, to the Hunter”, in George Gascoigne, transl., The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting. […], London: […] Thomas Purfoot, published 1611, →OCLC, page 177

Adjective

brag (comparative bragger, superlative braggest)

  1. Excellent; first-rate.
  2. (archaic) Brisk; full of spirits; boasting; pretentious; conceited.
    • a woundy, brag young fellow1633 (first performance), Ben Jonson, “A Tale of a Tub. A Comedy […]”, in The Works of Beniamin Jonson, […] (Third Folio), London: […] Thomas Hodgkin, for H[enry] Herringman, E. Brewster, T. Bassett...

Adverb

brag (comparative more brag, superlative most brag)

  1. (obsolete) Proudly; boastfully.
    • Seest how brag yond bullock beare […]his pricked eares?1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Februarie. Ægloga Secunda.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC

Also used as

brag is also the abbreviation of three card brag.

brag meaning in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Gujarati

brag in Telugu

to boast
గప్పాలు gappālu

brag in Malayalam

to boast
പൊങ്ങച്ചം പറയുക poṅṅaccaṁ paṟayuka, വീമ്പ് പറയുക vīmpŭ paṟayuka

brag in Kannada

ಬಡಾಯಿ ಹೊಡೆಯಲು

brag in Gujarati

બડાઈ મારવી
More languagesFewer languages
brag in Arabic
تَبَاهَى tabāhā
brag in Persian
لافیدن lâfidan

Examples of brag in a sentence

  • I'm not even bragging, but me and my friends are pretty much quiche.
  • I get very tired of parents who constantly brag on their children.
  • He’s always bragging about how many women he’s had.

All 40 example sentences with brag

Synonyms of brag

Forms of brag

Noun
pluralbrags
Verb
third-person singular presentbrags
present participlebragging
past participlebragged
pastbragged
Adjective
comparativebragger
superlativebraggest
Adverb
comparativemore brag
superlativemost brag

Plural of brag: brags

Origin of brag

From Middle English braggen (“to make a loud noise; to speak boastfully”) of uncertain origin. Possibly related to the Middle English adjective brag (“prideful; spirited”), which is probably of Celtic origin; or from Old Norse bragr (“best; foremost; poetry”); or through Old English from Old Norse braka (“to creak”).

Words formed from brag

Phrases with brag

Words that rhyme with brag

39 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about brag

What does brag mean?
Brag means a boast or boasting; bragging; ostentatious pretence or self-glorification.
What is brag in Telugu?
Brag in Telugu is గప్పాలు (gappālu). See Brag meaning in Telugu.
What part of speech is brag?
Brag can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb.
How do you pronounce brag?
Brag is pronounced /bɹæɡ/ (UK).
What is the plural of brag?
The plural of brag is brags.

Words near brag in the dictionary

  1. braffins
  2. Brafford
  3. Braffords
  4. Braford
  5. Brafords
  6. brag
  7. brag book
  8. brag books
  9. brag on
  10. brag sheet
  11. brag sheets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brag (page history and authors); brag (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); brag (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated:

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Cite this entry: “brag.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brag. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.