Robert Browning
Flaunt vs. Flout: Usage Guide
The "treat contemptuously" use of flaunt found in phrases like "those who flaunt the rules/laws" is common in informal use and sometimes appears in polished and published writing.
Oscar Lewis
David Gilbert
This use undoubtedly arose from confusion with flout, however, and is considered by many to be incorrect. Use of flout in the sense of "flaunt, parade" is also found occasionally.
Mike Royko
Did you know?
If you flout a rule or societal norm, you ignore it without hiding what you're doing, or showing fear or shame; you flout it "out" in the open. The similar-sounding word flaunt is sometimes used in the same way, though that word's older and more common meaning is "to display ostentatiously," as in "people who flaunt their wealth." Critics have been objecting to the confusion of these two words since the early 1900s, but use of flaunt with the meaning "to treat with contemptuous disregard" is found in even polished, edited writing, and so that meaning is included in dictionaries as an established use of the word. Nonetheless, you may want to avoid it: there are still many who judge harshly those who (they feel) are flouting proper English usage.
Examples of flout in a Sentence
ABC News, 22 June 2026
Animal welfare activists have long said the carriage horses are overworked, can get easily spooked on city streets and live in inadequate stables while their drivers regularly flout city rules.
—Michael Casey, Los Angeles Times, 19 June 2026
In what is likely a foregone conclusion, our court steps toward endorsing the view that States can force a religious organization to hire individuals who openly flout its religious beliefs and teachings.
—Jack Birle, The Washington Examiner, 19 June 2026
That order has been faltering, flouted repeatedly by the powerful who have faced no consequences for aggression, leaving the world overall more dangerous for everyone else.
—Elizabeth Shackelford, Chicago Tribune, 12 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for flout
Cite this Entry
“Flout.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flout. Accessed 24 Jun. 2026.
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