bluster

verb blus·ter \ ˈblə-stər \

Updated on: 8 Apr 2018

Definition of bluster

blustered; blustering play \ˈblə-st(ə-)riŋ\

intransitive verb

1 : to talk or act with noisy swaggering threats

brags and blusters but rarely does what he says he'll do

2 a : 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

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blusterer

play \-tər-ər\ noun

See bluster defined for English-language learners

See bluster defined for kids

Examples of bluster in a Sentence

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.

Recent Examples of bluster from the Web

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
But this long work gets bogged down with heavy-handed comedic episodes that last too long, mostly involving the crude, blustering Baron Ochs, a cousin of the Marschallin.

— anthony tommasini, New York Times, "Review: Renée Fleming’s Poignant Farewell to ‘Der Rosenkavalier’," 14 Apr. 2017
But at the end of the day, what Trump blusters about doesn't matter, at least this time—what matters is the Senate's actions that could hurt millions of Americans.

— megan friedman, Esquire, "Seth Meyers Breaks Down the 'Cartoonishly Evil' Trumpcare Bill," 27 June 2017
Despite intense backlash from customers and advocates, several federal investigations, and blustering lawmakers, the company has yet to drop the soaring price of its epinephrine auto-injectors, EpiPen, as The New York Times pointed out this weekend.

— beth mole, Ars Technica, "Mylan chairman: Drug pricing critics ought to go copulate with themselves," 5 June 2017

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.

Origin and Etymology of bluster

Middle English blustren, probably from Middle Low German blüsteren

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First Known Use: 15th century

See Words from the same year

bluster Synonyms

bluster

noun

Definition of bluster

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

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blusterous

play \-t(ə-)rəs\ adjective

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blustery

play \-t(ə-)rē\ adjective

See bluster defined for English-language learners

Examples of bluster in a Sentence

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 of bluster from the Web

Meanwhile his current bluster has accomplished nothing beyond earning him the undying love of his core supporters, who appreciate his efforts more than his results.

— tina nguyen, The Hive, "Trump Doesn’t Know What DACA Is, But He Wants It Dead," 2 Apr. 2018
The film treats Pacino reverently, but the actor isn’t afraid to use his own bluster as a punchline.

— david sims, The Atlantic, "The Many Eras of Al Pacino's Stardom," 25 Mar. 2018
One senior aide told CNN that leadership was trying to figure out if this is real or just bluster at the moment.

— daniella diaz and phil mattingly, CNN, "Democrats poke Trump over veto threat," 23 Mar. 2018
Trump’s campaign manager in the early days, when his bid for the Republican nomination seemed either a joke or a publicity bid, was Corey R. Lewandowski, who channeled Trump’s pugnacity and bluster.

— alexander nazaryan, Newsweek, "Steve Bannon’s Plan To Make America Great Again—With or Without Trump," 28 Dec. 2017
For all its bluster, Turkey would be far worse off without the United States as an ally; what's more, U.S. influence is the best chance of convincing Syrian Kurds to break with the PKK and forge their own path, as Iraqi Kurds did.

— chicagotribune.com, "US alliance with Turkey is worth preserving," 19 Mar. 2018
The play's women are underserved by Guirgis, who gives them little time to reveal themselves amid the nonstop bluster of the male characters.

— OregonLive.com, "'Between Riverside and Crazy' looks at the cruel cost of moving on," 12 Mar. 2018
His rhetoric was more than just aggressive bluster.

— matt ford, New Republic, "Trump Warned America About His Abuse of Power," 30 Jan. 2018
This is empty bluster, unless the administration is foolhardy enough to launch a strike.

— charles p. pierce, Esquire, "The North Korea Question," 31 Jan. 2018