▪ I. boast, n.1
(bəʊst)
Forms: 3–7 bost, 4–6 boste, 4–5 boost, 6 Sc. boist, 6– boast.
[ME. bōst n., bōsten vb. are both found before 1300: their mutual relation and origin are unknown. (The Celtic words, Welsh bostio, Gael. bòsd, etc., which have been hastily assumed as the source, appear to be merely adopted from English.) Various conjectures and comparisons may be seen in Wedgwood, and E. Müller, but nothing to purpose.
The phonetic history of boast, showing ME. long ō surviving as mod.Eng. long ō (oa) in north. as well as standard Eng., shows that boast is not:—OE. *bást, which would have given north. ME. bast, mod. baist (cf. ghaist, maist, Sc. for ghost, most); nor:—OE. *bóst, which would have given mod. boost, north. buist; nor:—OE. *bost, which would have retained short o (cf. frost); but from a word of later (foreign) introduction. Its phonetic analogues are the Romanic words in -ost, with the o lengthened in later Eng., coast, roast, toast, hōst, pōst, which would lead us to expect an OF. *boster; but of this no trace has been found.]
† 1. Loud noise of the voice, outcry, clamour.
| c 1300 K. Alis. 5290 Now ariseth cry and boost Among Alisaunders oost Of scorpiouns and addres. c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 3147 Vp thai sterten with gret bost, Euerich king with al his ost. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xiv. 247 And whether be liȝter to breke? lasse boste it maketh, A beggeres bagge þan an yren-bounde coffre! c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 887 Tesbe rist vppe withouten noyse or booste. c 1430 Life St. Kath. (Halliw.) 8 Maxent then with grete boste, Made hur to be bownde to a poste. 1813 Whitaker P. Plowm. xvii. 89 note, Boost, a noise; a provincial word still familiar in the midland counties. |
† 2. Speaking big, threatening, menace. north.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce ix. 231 Thair bost has maid me haill and fer. c 1460 Towneley Myst. 178 For his bost be not abast. c 1470 Henry Wallace xi. 389 Scho wald nocht tell, for bost, nor ȝeit reward. 1578 Gude & Godlie Ballates (1868) 91 Ȝour bludie boist na syith can satisfie. 1600 J. Melvill Diary (1842) 54 He could nocht be broken be bost. 1637 Rutherford Lett. ci. (1862) I. 258 Slip not from it [the truth of Christ] for any bosts or fear of men. |
3. Proud or vain-glorious speech; ‘tall talk’; vaunt, brag; the expression of ostentation.
| c 1300 Song 92 in E.E.P. (1862) 132 Vr bost vr brag is some ouerbide. c 1462 in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. I. 15 The King maketh right grete bostes of you for the truest and the feithfullest man that any Christen Prince may have. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. v. v. 162 The swell'd boast Of him that best could speake. 1709 Steele & Add. Tatler No. 93 ¶2 One of the Gentlemen..told me by Way of Boast, That there were now seven Wooden Legs in his Family. 1871 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 266 They soon found such a boast was vain indeed. 1884 Child E.S. Ballads II. 282/1 If they cannot make good their boasts. |
† b. Ostentation, pomp, vain-glory. Obs.
| 1297 R. Glouc. 258 Þe kyng..bynome al ys bost. a 1300 Cursor M. 6224 Quen [pharaon] had mad al bun his ost, He went wit mikel prid and bost. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 179 As for bobaunce & bost & bolnande priyde. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls Ser.) VI. 167 Guthlacus þe confessour forsook armes and þe boost and pompe of þis world. c 1440 Gesta Rom. (1879) 119 When thow forsakist the devil, & al his bostys, & pompis. |
c. ‘A cause of boasting, an occasion of pride, the thing boasted.’ J.
| 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 1193 My resolution, love, shall be thy boast. 1737 Pope Hor. Epist. ii. i. 7 Edward and Henry, now the boast of fame. 1792 Anecd. W. Pitt II. xxix. 125 It is my boast, that I was the first Minister who looked for it [merit]. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 332 Those divines who were the boast of the universities and the delight of the capital. |
4. Phrases. † to blow (a) boast: to boast, brag (cf. blow, blast, blaze). to make (one's) boast: to boast of, to glory in; also absol.; so † to shake boast: cf. L. jactari.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce iv. 122 The gret bost that it [pryde] blawis. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 267 Mak of ȝoure trouthe in loue no bost ne soun. 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 45 He shaketh boast and oft doth him auaunte Of fortunes fauour. 1550 Lyndesay Meldrum 266 Thair was into the Inglis oist Ane campioun that blew greit boist. a 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus iii. 341 Blaw furth ȝour boist busteous. 1611 Bible Ps. xxxiv. 2 My soule shall make her boast in the Lord. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. xl. vii, How often shall..she..bring her babe, and make her boast. |
▪ II. boast, v.1
(bəʊst)
Forms: 4 bost(en, 4–5 boost(e, 5 boaste, 5–6 boste, 6 Sc. boist, 6–7 bost, 6– boast.
[See the n.]
The primary sense was prob. ‘to lift up one's voice’, ‘speak with a loud voice’.
I. To threaten.
† 1. intr. To utter a threat, to threaten. Also with cogn. object of the thing threatened. Obs.
| c 1300 K. Alis. 2597 They bostodyn..Alisaundres hed of to smyte. 1513 Douglas æneis ii. xi. (x.) 119 The tree branglis, bosting to the fall. 1552 Abp. Hamilton Catech. 28 Punitions..that God in haly scripture bostis and schoris aganis all the brekaris of his commandis. c 1610 Sir J. Melvil Mem. (1683) 70 She boasted to marry the Arch⁓duke Charles. |
† 2. trans. To threaten; to bully, terrify. Sc.
| 1513 Douglas æneis x. xiv. 122 Quhat wenys thou so to effray and bost me? 1533 Bellenden Livy i. (1822) 101 And sum time begun to boist hir with deith. 1582–8 Hist. James VI (1804) 137 He was boistit with toirtour unles he should tell. 1645 Rutherford Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845) 371 Yonder standeth our Creator boasting us, and therefore we will obey. 1756 M. Calderwood Jrnl. v. (1884) 147 Some others near him boasted him for it. |
II. To speak ostentatiously.
3. intr. To speak vaingloriously, extol oneself; to vaunt, brag; to brag of, about, glory in. (So to boast it: to practise boasting.)
| c 1340 Cursor M. 22289 (Trin.) Þat anticrist..he sal men do of him to boost Ouer alle oþere to preise moost. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. ii. 80 To bakbite and to bosten · and bere fals witnesse. c 1420 Avow. Arth. xxiii, I, Kay, that thou knawes That owte of tyme bostus and blawus. 1587 Mirr. Mag., Stater v. 5, I neede not of honour or dignitie boast. 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iii. iii. 23 Nor should that Nation boast it so with vs. 1611 Bible Ps. xliv. 8 In God we boast all the day long. 1655 Theophania 80, I can never consent that [he] should boast in any favor of mine. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 73 ¶2 He has not much to boast of. 1844 Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. x. (1862) 131 To boast of the honours enjoyed by their remote ancestors. |
4. refl. in same sense. [Cf. Fr. se vanter.]
| a 1300 Cursor M. 17983 Iesu..Þat boost him goddes sone to be. c 1400 Apol. Loll. 92 Þat he boost him silf in his dede. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 86 To preyse and boste him self of his goode dedis. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 92 Whan he bosteth hymselfe to haue y{supt} whiche he hath not. 1535 Coverdale Ps. li. 1 Why boastest thou thy self..that thou canst do myschefe? 1611 Bible Prov. xxvii. 1 Boast not thy selfe of to morrow. ― Ps. lii. 1 Why boastest thou thyselfe in mischiefe, O mightie man? 1755 Johnson in Boswell (1816) I. 242 That dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself. 1876 Green Short Hist. ii. §6 (1882) 88 The descendants of the victors at Senlac boasted themselves to be Englishmen. |
5. trans. To extol; to speak of with pride or ostentation; to brag of, vaunt. a. with obj. clause, usually with that. (? orig. intr.)
| c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 53 To booste not þat we ben of holy chirche. c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. cxxiii, No! Time, thou shalt not bost that I doe change. 1718 Pope Iliad ii. 577 We..guess by rumour, and but boast we know. 1873 Morley Rousseau I. 234 Voltaire boasted that if he shook his wig, the powder flew over the whole of the tiny republic. |
b. with simple object.
| 1543 Grafton Contn. Harding 524 When the duke beganne fyrste to prayse and boaste the Kyng. 1603 B. Jonson Sejanus v. xxiv. 63 Forbeare, you thinges..To boast your slippery height. 1671 Milton P.R. i. 409 Who boast'st release from hell. 1734 tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) II. ii. §2. 11 He boasted his having vanquished the enemy. |
6. To display vaingloriously or proudly. arch.
| 1590 Greene Orl. Fur. (1599) 23 Kinde Flora boast thy pride. 1681 Dryden Abs. & Achit. 162 Would steer too nigh the Sands, to boast his Wit. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 126 A short Chain cut in Stone; of what use I know not, unless to boast the Skill of the Artificer. 1777 Sir W. Jones Pal. Fortune 28 In vain, ye flowers, you boast your vernal bloom. |
7. fig. To possess as a thing to be proud of, to have to show.
| 1697 Dryden Virg. Eclog. viii. 10 Whatever Land or Sea thy Presence boast. 1795 Southey Joan of Arc iv. 463 A humble villager, who only boasts The treasure of the heart. 1810 Scott Lady of L. i. xxvi, The clematis, the favoured flower, Which boasts the name of virgin-bower. 1871 R. Ellis Catullus xiii. 8 He boasts but a pouch of empty cobwebs. |
▪ III. boast, v.2
Also bost.
[Of uncertain etymology: F. bosse swelling, relief, as in ronde bosse ‘full relief’, has been suggested; but with little apparent fitness.]
1. Masonry. To pare stone irregularly with a broad chisel and mallet.
| 1823 [see boasting vbl. n.2]. 1876 Sir E. Beckett Building 167 More trouble is taken to work the stone with small chisels..than it would take to ‘boast’ (as they call it) into a fairly level surface. |
2. Sculpture. To shape (a block) roughly before putting in details.
3. Wood-carving. To model roughly the details of (the design). So with in or out. See boasting vbl. n.2
| 1867 G. A. Rogers Wood Carving 11 When the stalk and leaves have been bosted into the agreeable curves they assume in nature. 1875 T. Seaton Fret Cutting 36 Every piece of work of any importance must go through the three stages—blocked out, bosted, finished. Ibid. 97 The leaf having been bosted it must now be finished, so let my readers take pencil in hand, and..let them sketch on the bosted mass each leaflet, division, and part. 1890 C. G. Leland Wood Carving 50 The three stages of blocking out, bosting, and finishing. Ibid. 56 In commencing or bosting out this pattern. 1907 E. Rowe Pract. Wood-Carving vi. 68 The next step is to bost in the ornament. 1970 H. Braun Parish Churches vii. 90 The mason would leave a rough lump called a ‘boasting’ as a basis for the intended carving. |
▪ IV. boast, v.3 and n.2 Real Tennis and Rackets.
(bəʊst)
[? f. F. bosse the place where the ball hits the wall. (Cf. boast v.2)]
trans. To hit (the ball) so that it strikes either of the side-walls before it strikes the end-wall; also to make (a stroke of this kind), and intr. Also n. = the stroke. So ˈboasted ppl. a., ˈboasting vbl. n.
| 1878 J. Marshall Ann. Tennis 156 This stroke is called a boast, or boasted stroke. Ibid. 176 What is called boasting the ball. Ibid., We..call them all boasts or boasted balls indifferently, whether struck from one or the other side of the net. 1898 Kennedy & Cohen Tennis in ‘House’ on Sport I. 421 The service was boasted under the winning gallery wall. 1902 E. Miles Racquets, etc. 194 This is called ‘boasting’, and it gives the ball a powerful twist. Ibid. 231 The Boasted Volley, the Volley hit direct onto the Side-wall. 1959 Times 4 Mar. 4/5 A liberal use of the boasted stroke. 1963 Ibid. 8 Jan. 3/5 This Binns did with his usual touch strokes, boasting with precision. Ibid., This reaching and turning repeatedly for boasts is the most tiring way to be forced to run. |