boast

Formsboasts, boasting, boasted

Pluralboasts

1. 1
   verbintransitive

   To talk loudly and proudly about oneself in order to impress others.

   Some players boast after every point they win.

   She rarely boasts, even when she has every reason to be proud.

   Similarbrag, gloat, crow, swagger

   Note

   Used on its own, with no object, the verb names the habit rather than any particular claim: some people simply boast. A that-clause turns it into a report of what was claimed, as in Lesley Brown's translation of Plato's Sophist, where no one "will be able to boast that he's escaped." For bragging about a specific thing, English turns to the about-or-of construction.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To possess a special and desirable quality or feature worth taking pride in.

   The small town boasts the oldest working clock in the region.

   Few cars in this price range boast such advanced safety systems.

   Similarpossess, have, feature, offer

   Oppositelack

   Note

   In this sense nobody speaks at all. A hotel boasts a sea view, a station boasts its semaphore signals, a family boasts a famous name. The subject is usually a place, thing or group, and the object is a feature worth showing off. It is close kin to the thing one is proud of. The verb always implies approval: a house boasts a fine garden, never a leaking roof.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To speak of something with pride or vanity, aiming to win praise for oneself.

   Candidates often boast about their achievements during campaigns.

   He boasted of his connections to anyone who would listen.

   Similarbrag, crow, trumpet

   Oppositedownplay

   Note

   Here the bragging has a target, normally introduced by about or of. Oliver Burkeman writes in The Guardian Weekly (2013) that web companies "like to boast about" their content. Older English could drop the preposition, as Milton does in Paradise Lost (1667): "Lest bad men should boast / Their specious deeds." Today a bare object usually shifts the meaning toward simply having a fine feature.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A proud, showy statement in which someone praises oneself.

   Her promise of victory proved to be an idle boast.

   The room fell quiet at his loud boasts of wealth.

   Similarbrag

   Note

   Behind the noun lies an image of swelling. Middle English bost covered boast, glory, noise, arrogance and vanity, and the word probably came from North Germanic, ultimately from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "inflated, puffed up, proud." A boast is talk that puffs the speaker up. It pairs naturally with idle for a claim that comes to nothing, and it often appears in the plural, as in loud boasts.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A thing that someone takes pride in and likes to brag about.

   The restored cathedral remains the city's proudest boast.

   A perfect safety record was the factory's chief boast.

   Similarpride, glory

   Oppositeshame, disgrace

6. 6
   nouncountable

   In squash, a shot driven onto a side wall so that it then strikes the front wall.

   From the back corner she played a tight boast that died near the front wall.

   His boast caught the opponent off guard and ended the point.

   Note

   Squash names this angled shot for the wall it uses first. The ball goes into a side wall, sometimes both, and only then reaches the front. Players use it defensively, to dig a ball out of the deep corners, and offensively, to send an opponent the wrong way. The same word serves as the verb for playing it.

7. 7
   verbintransitive

   In squash, to play a shot that travels off a side wall before striking the front wall.

   He boasted off the back wall to recover a ball he could not otherwise reach.

   Skilled players boast to disguise their intentions and unbalance opponents.

   Note

   The verb simply puts the shot into action, and it inflects regularly: a player boasts, is boasting, has boasted. It usually takes no object, and what follows names the wall or the position, as in boasting off the back wall or from a corner. The tactics are described under the squash shot itself.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   In masonry, to dress the face of a stone with a broad chisel.

   The mason boasted each block to an even surface before laying it.

   On the cathedral repair job, two masons boast the new limestone blocks while a third finishes the edges.

   Similardress

   Note

   A mason's term that belongs to a separate word from the bragging verb, which only shares its spelling. To boast a stone is to work its face with a broad chisel, bringing the block to an even surface before it is laid. The forms are the ordinary ones: masons boast, are boasting, have boasted.

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To shape something roughly to its general form as preparation for the finer work that follows.

   She boasted the timber to its outline before modeling the fine features.

   Most stone carvers boast a block of limestone into the rough mass of the figure before picking up their finer chisels.

   Similarrough

   Note

   The carver's stage before the detail: a block of stone or a piece of timber is cut down to its general outline so that the finer tools have something to refine. It belongs with the mason's chisel work rather than with bragging. To boast a figure is to rough it in, never to finish it.

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