Category:Bombast

Bom"bast, n. Etym: [OF. bombace cotton, LL. bombax cotton, bombasium a doublet of cotton; hence, padding, wadding, fustian. See Bombazine.]

1. Originally, cotton, or cotton wool. [Obs.] A candle with a wick of bombast. Lupton.

2. Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing; padding. [Obs.] How now, my sweet creature of bombast! Shak. Doublets, stuffed with four, five, or six pounds of bombast at least. Stubbes.

3. Fig.: High-sounding words; an inflated style; language above the dignity of the occasion; fustian. Yet noisy bombast carefully avoid. Dryden.

Bombast Bom"bast, a.

Defn: High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent; bombastic. [He] evades them with a bombast circumstance, Horribly stuffed with epithets of war. Shak. Nor a tall metaphor in bombast way. Cowley.

Bombast Bom*bast", v. t.

Defn: To swell or fill out; to pad; to inflate. [Obs.] Not bombasted with words vain ticklish ears to feed. Drayton.