vaunt

1 of 2

verb

ˈvȯnt How to pronounce vaunt (audio)
ˈvänt
vaunted; vaunting; vaunts

intransitive verb

: to make a vain display of one's own worth or attainments : brag

transitive verb

: to call attention to pridefully and often boastfully
people who vaunt their ingenuity
vaunter noun
vauntingly adverb

vaunt

2 of 2

noun

1
: a vainglorious display of what one is or has or has done
2
: a bragging assertive statement
Choose the Right Synonym for vaunt

boast, brag, vaunt, crow mean to express pride in oneself or one's accomplishments.

boast often suggests ostentation and exaggeration

boasts of every trivial success

, but it may imply a claiming with proper and justifiable pride.

the town boasts one of the best museums in the area

brag suggests crudity and artlessness in glorifying oneself.

bragging of their exploits

vaunt usually connotes more pomp and bombast than boast and less crudity or naïveté than brag.

vaunted his country's military might

crow usually implies exultant boasting or bragging.

crowed after winning the championship

Examples of vaunt in a Sentence

Verb even the noblest of fellows have been known to vaunt a bit
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
Chargers Chargers defense outplays vaunted Jets unit, keeping N.Y. out of end zone in road win Nov. 6, 2023 Austin Ekeler scored twice but averaged just 3.4 yards per carry and had two catches on seven targets. Gary Klein, Los Angeles Times, 7 Nov. 2023 The Baltic states’ paranoia about Russia now seems well founded, and Finland and Sweden’s once vaunted neutrality no longer appropriate. Tom Tugendhat, Foreign Affairs, 1 Sep. 2022 Unlike their face-to-face predecessors, virtual meetings are even more highly visible venues for vaunting (humbly) and demonstrating your expertise. William Arruda, Forbes, 16 July 2023 All of a sudden, investors are expecting extremely rapid earnings growth from four already huge, mature companies—Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon—and incredibly fast growth from Nvidia based on vaunting hopes for A.I. The hopes, and the prices, are just too high. Shawn Tully, Fortune, 30 May 2023 His political instincts, once vaunted by the press, have also come into question. Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 24 May 2023 Bass doesn’t vaunt a rah-rah training program, filling the gym with trainers or cameras. Sam Cohn, Baltimore Sun, 5 Apr. 2023 The commission, which had previously vaunted the immediate publication of those results as a key step toward improving election transparency, said the delays were due to technical glitches and didn’t affect the integrity of the vote. Gabriele Steinhauser, WSJ, 27 Feb. 2023 Regardless of what Garoppolo does, the 49ers’ defense has to re-vaunt itself. Scott Ostler, SFChronicle.com, 20 Sep. 2020
Noun
Perhaps the Huskers’ new hire can have a similar effect and vaunt Nebraska back into his top group. Chris Bumbaca, ajc, 1 Dec. 2017 French bank lobby vaunts Macron reforms in annual conference Prime Minister Philippe offers tax cuts to woo London bankers France’s financial lobby insists the battle for post-Brexit banking jobs isn’t over. Fabio Benedetti Valentini, Bloomberg.com, 11 July 2017

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'vaunt.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb

Middle English vaunten "to speak vainly, boast," borrowed from Anglo-French vanter, vaunter, going back to Late Latin vānitāre (only in participial forms vānitantēs, vānitantia), frequentative derivative of *vānāre "to make a vain display," derivative of Latin vānus "lacking content, empty, illusory, marked by foolish or empty pride" — more at wane entry 1

Noun

Middle English, probably aphetic form of avaunt "boast," noun derivative of avaunten "to boast, brag," borrowed from Anglo-French avanter "to boast about," from a-, prefix in transitive verbs (going back to Latin ad-) + vanter "to boast" — more at ad-, vaunt entry 1

First Known Use

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of vaunt was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near vaunt

Cite this Entry

“Vaunt.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vaunt. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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