bluster

verb

blus·ter | \ ˈblə-stər

blustered; blustering\ ˈblə-st(ə-)riŋ

Definition of bluster

(Entry 1 of 2)

intransitive verb

1 : to talk or act with noisy swaggering threats brags and blusters but rarely does what he says he'll do

2a : to blow in stormy noisy gusts a cold, blustering wind

b : to be windy and boisterous … when autumn blusters and the orchard rocks.— Robert Browning

transitive verb

1 : to utter with noisy self-assertiveness "I don't want to hear it!" he blustered.

2 : to drive or force by blustering … trying to bluster us into the belief that they are much better than they look.— F. A. Swinnerton

bluster

noun

Definition of bluster (Entry 2 of 2)

1 : a violent boisterous blowing … the strong breeze driving them was setting up a bluster on the water.— Rose Thurburn

2 : violent commotion They do their work without bluster or ostentation.— Stanley Walker

3 : loudly boastful or threatening speech growing tired of his macho bluster

Other Words from bluster Synonyms More Example Sentences Learn More about bluster

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Other Words from bluster

Verb

blusterer \ ˈblə-stər-ər

\ noun

Noun

blusterous \ ˈblə-st(ə-)rəs

\ adjective

blustery \ ˈblə-st(ə-)rē

\ adjective

Examples of bluster in a Sentence

Verb

He brags and blusters, but he never really does what he says he'll do. “I don't want to hear it!” he blustered. The wind blustered through the valley.

Noun

We were all tired of his macho bluster. all the bluster in the campaign speech was intended to hide a lack of specifics

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

Rather than endure a humiliating climb-down that would involve admission of cheating and the destruction of the new missiles, Putin is blustering new threats. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "As a Key Arms-Control Treaty Is Set to Die, Russia Threatens to Target U.S. with New Nukes," 20 Feb. 2019 Abraham Lincoln even made an appearance, as did George Washington, each of them blustering about the foundations of this country. — Rebecca Farley, refinery29.com, "The Bachelorette Wants To Have Its Cake & Be Political, Too," 3 July 2018 And with that, Mai blustered through the mob with security on her tail. — Bianca Alysse, Billboard, "Ella Mai Wins New York City Over With Her Enchanting Concert at S.O.B.'s," 16 May 2018 During the same period, my stepmother got breast cancer, my mother-in-law had brain surgery, and Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un blustered on about nuclear war. — Jake Halpern, WSJ, "Drip, Drip: Why We Sweat the Small Stuff," 17 Apr. 2018 During the kids' first week back in school, a late-summer wind blustered up. — Logan Ward, Popular Mechanics, "How to Build a Treehouse in the Backyard," 20 Mar. 2017 In another post, Mira Rapp-Hooper looked at five takeaways from Trump’s blustering rhetoric on North Korea. — Elizabeth N. Saunders, Washington Post, "Five things Trump did on his summer vacation: A foreign policy roundup," 4 Sep. 2017 While candidate Trump blustered about scrapping the nuclear deal altogether, his administration has been compelled to shy away from such drastic unilateral action. — Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, "The U.S. and Iran are heading toward crisis," 19 July 2017 As Dexter Filkins recently wrote, in , some officials fear that Trump will bluster about terrorism in public but privately delegate strategy to the military. — David Rohde, The New Yorker, "What Donald Trump Can Do to Help Stop Terrorism: Talk Less," 4 June 2017

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Trump touted the move in early June as a success but critics said that his deal with Mexicans was just bluster and actually yielded no meaningful new agreements. — Ephrat Livni, Quartz, "Trump delayed the ICE raids in another panic-inducing “bait and switch”," 23 June 2019 There is a cost to alternating between bluster and restraint, and that cost is obvious. — David French, National Review, "Making Sense of the Iran Chaos," 22 June 2019 Only a small group of Tamalpais High School’s 1,600 students take part in this ritual of brash high jinks, bluster and teenage torment. — Rachel Swan, SFChronicle.com, "‘Hook up with an eighth grader’: Mill Valley high school students in hot water over to-do list," 7 June 2019 President Trump is threatening to shut down all legal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border, and let’s hope this is negotiating bluster and not a plan. — The Editorial Board, WSJ, "Blowing Up the Border," 2 Apr. 2019 Burn This offers a chance to see Driver’s Pale span from comic chaos to violent threat, from bluster to paralyzing sensitivity. — Jason Zinoman, Vogue, "In Burn This, Adam Driver and Keri Russell Find Love in a Hopeless Place," 15 Apr. 2019 Yet, after all the uncertainty and bluster from the White House, the replacement for Nafta isn’t so very different from the previous version. — James Mackintosh, WSJ, "Trading on Uncertainty About Tariffs," 4 Dec. 2018 Miyanaga-san lacks the star power of Elon Musk, fortune of Jeff Bezos, or public bluster of Russia’s Dmitry Rogozin. — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, "Quietly, Japan has established itself as a power in the aerospace industry," 15 Nov. 2018 Now, Trump should stop the bluster about preconditions. — Andrew Malcolm, San Francisco Chronicle, "Trump’s Korea initiative is risky and unprecedented," 2 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'bluster.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.