ˈswashˌbuckling, a.
[f. swashbuckler (apprehended as an agent-n. in -er1) + -ing2.]
Acting like, or characteristic of the conduct of, a swashbuckler; noisily swaggering, blustering. So ˈswashˌbuckling n.
| a 1693 Urquhart's Rabelais iii. xlii. 349 The huff, snuff,..swash-buckling High Germans. 1863 Sala in Temple Bar IX. 65 The Hungarian are stout wines, of a swash⁓buckling flavour. 1865 Kingsley Herew. xxxii, A swash⁓buckling ruffian. 1888 Boston (Mass.) Transcript 7 July 4/4 Swashbucklers are generally satisfied with swashbuckling. 1889 T. B. Reed in Boy's Own Paper 3 Aug. 696/1 A score of more of swashbuckling 'prentices were on board the ship. 1894 Athenæum 27 Oct. 565/3 The one occasionally degenerates into artifice, and the other into literary swashbuckling. |
Hence (back-formation) ˈswashˌbuckle v., to swagger noisily, act like a blustering bravo.
| 1897 Westm. Gaz. 6 Jan. 3/1 He strikes one as a bravo, he swashbuckles and swaggers. 1939 W. Fortescue There's Rosemary, There's Rue vi. 41 One proud day I was promoted to study the part of Rosalind in ‘As You Like It’, and I swashbuckled round that flat in imaginary doublet and hose. 1979 R. Blythe View in Winter ix. 312, I knew a remittance man in Kenya..swashbuckling about with a revolver in his belt. |