Bombast

subs. (old).—Inflated language; BARNUMESE (q.v.), HIGH-FALUTING (q.v.). Also as verb: cf. BOMBARD-PHRASE.

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1622. DRAYTON, Poly-Olbion, xxi.

	Give me those lines (whose touch the skilful ear to please)
	That gliding slow in state, like swelling Euphrates,
	In which things natural be, and not in falsely wrong;
	The sounds are fine and smooth, the sense is full and strong;
	Not BOMBASTED with words, vain ticklish ears to feed,
	But such as may content the perfect man to read.

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1622. TAYLOR, Motto.

	To flourish o’re, or BUMBAST out my stile,
	To make such as not understand me smile.

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c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BOMBAST-POETRY, in Words of lofty Sound and humble Sense.

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