bloviate
verb
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What's the connection between Harding and bloviate?
Warren G. Harding is often linked to bloviate, but to him the word wasn't insulting; it simply meant "to spend time idly." Harding used the word often in that "hanging around" sense, but during his tenure as the 29th U.S. President (1921-23), he became associated with the "verbose" sense of bloviate, perhaps because his speeches tended to the long-winded side. Although he is sometimes credited with having coined the word, it's more likely that Harding picked it up from local slang while hanging around with his boyhood buddies in Ohio in the late 1800s. The term probably derives from a combination of the word blow plus the suffix -ate.
Examples of bloviate in a Sentence
Christopher L. Gasper, BostonGlobe.com, 24 May 2023
In the play Prima Facie, Jodie Comer is alone on stage for the full length of the show’s 100 minutes, starting as a brash, bloviating barrister, then turning to a quieter, more vulnerable woman trying to find justice for herself in the very legal system that had previously propped her up.
—Caitlin Huston, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 May 2023
The alleged avatar, seemingly a middle-aged bald man sporting a salt-and-pepper beard, speaks in a dulcet, robotic monotone, bloviating through the seven-minute video.
—Cyrus Farivar, Forbes, 20 Apr. 2023
Actors jockey, directors bloviate, writers fume at liberties taken.
—Jesse Green, New York Times, 20 Apr. 2023
See All Example Sentences for bloviate
Cite this Entry
“Bloviate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bloviate. Accessed 9 Jul. 2025.
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