Word.ws English Dictionary

brandishing

brandishing is the present participle and gerund of brandish.

Meaning of brandish

Verb

brandish (third-person singular simple present brandishes, present participle brandishing, simple past and past participle brandished)

  1. (transitive) To move or swing a weapon back and forth, particularly if demonstrating anger, threat or skill.
    • He brandished his sword at the pirates.
  2. (transitive) To bear something with ostentatious show.
    • to brandish syllogisms

See all 3 meanings of brandish

Noun

brandishing (plural brandishings)

  1. The action of the verb to brandish.
    • He stands there and launches into a tauparapara or traditional chant, accompanied by vigorous actions and defiant brandishings of his stick.1989, Richard Bauman, Joel Sherzer, Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking, page 195

Forms of brandishing

pluralbrandishings

Questions about brandishing

What does brandishing mean?
Brandishing means the action of the verb to brandish.
What is brandishing the present participle and gerund of?
Brandishing is the present participle and gerund of brandish.
What part of speech is brandishing?
Brandishing is a noun.
What is the plural of brandishing?
The plural of brandishing is brandishings.

Words near brandishing in the dictionary

  1. brandisher
  2. brandishers
  3. brandishes
  4. brandishest
  5. brandisheth
  6. brandishing
  7. brandishings
  8. brandishment
  9. brandisht
  10. brandistock
  11. brandistocks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brandishing (page history and authors); brandish (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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Cite this entry: “brandishing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brandishing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.