[f. prec. vb.]
1. Boisterous blowing; a rough and stormy blast.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 21. Thee northen bluster aproching Thee sayls tears tag rag.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., III. iii. 4. The skies looke grimly, And threaten present blusters.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 665. To the Winds they set Thir corners, when with bluster to confound Sea, Aire, and Shoar.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), II. 139. Could we but direct the bluster, and bid it roar when … we pleased.
† b. fig. Tempest of wrath, blast of envy, etc.
1607. Shaks., Timon, V. iv. 41. Thé bluster of thy wrath.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low-C. Warres, Ep. Ded. Able to bear up against the Malevolent Blusters of Envy.
c. fig. A noisy and stormy commotion; a violent disturbance.
1656. H. More, Antid. Ath. (1712), Pref. 11. The laying or preventing the usual blusters of Christendom.
1773. Cradock, in Goldsm., Stoops to Conq., Epil. In town I’ll fix my station And try to make a bluster in the nation.
1876. Blackmore, Cripps, v. (1877), 26. The footman … ran in a bluster of rage and terror.
2. The boisterous blast of a wind instrument, or any similar sound.
1724. Swift, Prometh., Wks. 1755, III. II. 151. The brazen trumpets’ bluster.
1868. Hawthorne, Amer. Note-Bks. (1879), II. 156. The locomotive … making a great bluster.
3. Boisterous inflated talk, violent or angry self-assertion, noisy and empty menace, swaggering.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Fables, ccvii. (J.). A Coward in his Castle, makes a Great Deal more Bluster then a Man of Honour.
1728. Morgan, Algiers, I. Pref. 1. In spite of all the Blusters of the … Ignorant.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes, v. 301. Mirabeau has much more of bluster; a noisy, forward, unresting man.
1868. M. Pattison, Academ. Org., § 1. 7. A great deal of foolish bluster was talked about interference with private property.
4. Comb., as † bluster-master, a great blusterer.
a. 1670. Hacket, Abp. Williams, II. (1692), 99. A book publish’d by a bluster-master … call’d, A Coal from the Altar.
