Also 6–8 flant. [Of unknown origin.
The monosyllables of similar ending are (exc. perh. gaunt) all from Fr.; but no Fr. word is known which could be the source. Possibly the word may be an onomatopœia formed with a vague recollection of fly, flout and vaunt. Prof. Skeat compares mod. Sw. dial. flankt loosely, flutteringly (f. flanka to flutter, waver), also mod. Ger. (Bavarian) flandern to flutter, flaunt; but the late appearance of the word in Eng. makes it doubtful whether any connection exists.]
1. intr. Of plumes, banners, etc.: To wave gaily or proudly. Of plants: To wave so as to display their beauty.
1576. Gascoigne, Steele Gl. (Arb.), 63.
| [A soldier] Whose fethers flaunt, and flicker in the winde, | |
| As though he were, all onely to be markt. |
1634. [see FLAUNTING ppl. a. 1.]
1717. E. Fenton, trans. Secundus’ Bas., ii. Poems, 195.
| Where, flaunting in immortal Bloom, | |
| The Musk-Rose scents the verdant Gloom. |
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 59. Orange and lemon trees flaunt over the walls more common than pears in England.
1814. Southey, Roderick, I. 35.
| There on the beach the Misbelievers spread | |
| Their banners, flaunting to the sun and breeze; | |
| Fair shone the sun upon their proud array, | |
| White turbans, glittering armor, shields engrailed | |
| With gold, and cimeters of Syrian steel. |
1835. E. Elliott, To the Bramble Flower, 4.
| Though woodbines flaunt, and roses glow | |
| O’er all the fragrant bowers, | |
| Thou need’st not be ashamed to show | |
| Thy satin-threaded flowers. |
1844. Hood, The Mary, ix.
| No pennons brave | |
| Flaunted upon the mast—but oft a few | |
| Dark dripping jackets fluttered to the air, | |
| Ensigns of hardihood and toilsome care. |
2. a. Of persons: To walk or move about so as to display one’s finery; to display oneself in unbecomingly splendid or gaudy attire; to obtrude oneself boastfully, impudently, or defiantly on the public view. Often quasi-trans. to flaunt it (away, out, forth). b. Of things: To be extravagantly gaudy or glaringly conspicuous in appearance.
1566. Drant, Hor. Sat., I. ii. B.
| To roiste, and reuel wyth the beste, in suits of silkes to flante: | |
| Th’ harde headed fathers they denye such spences vaine to graunte. |
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. (1882), 108. I speake … against those that bee meane pastours and Ministers, that flaunt it out in their saten doblets, silke hosen, garded gownes, cloakes, and the like.
1590. H. Smith, Wedding Garment, 29. Christ must make vs garmentes, or else when our backs flant it like courtiers, our souls shall strippe like beggars. And the Diuels will sport themselues lyke Cham, to see our nakednesse.
1592. Greene, Groatsw. Wit (1617), 28. Lamilia came flaunting by, garnished with the iewels whereof shee beguiled him: which sight serued to close his stomacke after his cold cheare.
1652–62. Heylin, Cosmogr., I. (1682), 124. The People consequently so rich, that the Wife of every Mechanick will flant it in her Silks and Taffaties.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, I. iv. You loiter about alehouses and taverns, spend your time at billiards, ninepins, or puppet-shows, or flaunt about the streets in your new gilt chariot, never minding me nor your numerous family.
1734. Pope, Ess. Man, IV. 195.
| Fortune in men has some small diff’rence made; | |
| One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade. |
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, Wks. 1883, VII. 312. They will flaunt it away in a chariot and six, for the greater state and significance.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk. (1821), II. 113. The Miss Lambs might now be seen flaunting along the street in French bonnets, with unknown beaux; and talking and laughing so loud that it distressed the nerves of every good lady within hearing.
1840. Thackeray, Bedford-Row Consp., i. (1869), 270. Deserted that church which he had frequented, for he could not bear to see Sir George and my lady flaunting in their grand pew.
1847. Tennyson, The Princess, Prol. 140.
| If our old halls could change their sex, and flaunt | |
| With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans | |
| And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair. |
fig. 1581. Sidney, Astr. & Stella, iii. 1, Poems (Grosart, 1877), I. 8.
| Let dainty wits crie on the Sisters nine, | |
| That, brauely maskt, their fancies may be told; | |
| Or, Pindare’s apes, flaunt they in phrases fine, | |
| Enam’ling with pied flowers their thoughts of gold. |
1624. Gee, Foot out of Snare, v. 39. Now perking vp and flanting with the vain, aeriall, fantastick bubble of an Episcopall Title, far fetcht, and yet lightly giuen.
3. trans. To display ostentatiously or obtrusively; to flourish, parade, show off.
1827. Hood, Two Peacocks Bedfont, ii.
| Behold two maidens, up the quiet green | |
| Shining, far distant, in the summer air | |
| That flaunts their dewy robes and breathes between | |
| Their downy plumes. |
1840. Thackeray, Paris Sk.-bk. (1872), 8. The haberdashers (and this is their favorite street) flaunt long strips of gaudy calicoes, which give a strange air of rude gayety to the street.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, x. 17. Then supremely myself to flaunt before her.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, ix. 98. They [the pirates] flaunted their sails in front of Ostia itself; they landed in their boats at the villas on the Italian coast, carrying off lords and ladies, and holding them to ransom.
1886. Sidgwick, Outlines Hist. Ethics, ii. § 4. 33–4. The eccentricities with which his disciple Diogenes flaunted his fortitude and freedom have made him one of the most familiar figures of ancient social history, and one which in its very extravagance gives a vivid impression of that element in the Socratic pattern which it involuntarily caricatures.
Hence Flaunting vbl. sb.
1729. Mrs. Pendarves, in Mrs. Delany’s Corr., I. 230. I told him of your flauntings.
1876. Miss Braddon, J. Haggard’s Dau., II. ii. 59. ‘There’ll be fine flaunting when she’s a married woman and her own mistress,’ thought Judith, ‘with two hundred and fifty pounds a year for her own spending—silk gowns trimmed with thread-lace on workadays, I daresay.’
