windbag

noun

wind·​bag ˈwin(d)-ˌbag How to pronounce windbag (audio)
: an exhaustively talkative person

Examples of windbag in a Sentence

with a windbag like that, who needs a wind farm to meet our energy needs?
Recent Examples on the Web When a self-important young windbag named Bartow (played to perfection by Jackson Kelly) rather reasonably asks Hank to say something — anything — the latter launches into a scathing but accurate sendup of Bartow’s writing and accuses him (and the student population, and the college) of mediocrity. Lili Loofbourow, Washington Post, 18 Mar. 2023 The themes that move them — annoying roommates, windbag friends, comical misunderstandings, internet word soup — feel half-classic and half-distinctly contemporary, like if one of those fake AI Seinfeld script-bot Twitter accounts was actually funny. Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 1 Nov. 2021 But to some ears, Bross’ pitch sounded like the stump speech of a windbag politician: long on purple prose, short on facts. Ron Grossman, chicagotribune.com, 3 Mar. 2022 More: How Rand Paul went from calling Donald Trump an 'orange windbag' to being a devout disciple That put all eyes on Murkowski, whose vote could have forced a 50-50 tie. Ben Tobin, The Courier-Journal, 31 Jan. 2020 Some combination of deliberate tactics and the unprecedented loathing of his opponents causes anything bombastic, silly, or overly self-centered to be played up and employed to reinforce the caricature of him as a blustering, narcissistic windbag. Conrad Black, National Review, 11 Sep. 2019 Göring does not seem to care about anything, that windbag. Richard Sandomir, New York Times, 6 July 2018 Are Douthat, Robin, and others right in dismissing Trump as just a windbag? Jeet Heer, New Republic, 12 Feb. 2018 Even that old windbag Polonius, played by Robert Joy, is less a bombastic grandstander than a dry-as-dust martinet. Ben Brantley, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2018

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

Word History

First Known Use

1827, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of windbag was in 1827

Dictionary Entries Near windbag

Cite this Entry

“Windbag.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/windbag. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.

Kids Definition

windbag

noun
: a person who talks a lot without saying anything important
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