swashbuckler
(ˈswɒʃˌbʌklə(r))
[f. swash v. + buckler n.2; hence lit. one who makes a noise by striking his own or his opponent's shield with his sword.]
a. A swaggering bravo or ruffian; a noisy braggadocio.
| 1560 Pilkington Expos. Aggeus ii. 8–9 (1562) 266 Too be a dronkarde,..a gamner, a swashe-buckeler, he hath not alowed thee one mite. 1593 Nashe Christ's T. Wks. 1904 II. 148 No Smithfield ruffianly Swashbuckler will come of with such harshe hell-raking othes as they. 1648 W. Jenkyn Blind Guide i. 14 He speaking..more like a swash-buckler than a Bishop. a 1680 Butler Charact., Hermetic Philos., Make those spiritual Swash-Bucklers deliver up their Weapons, and keep the Peace. a 1721 Prior Dial. Dead, Charles & Clenard Wks. 1907 II. 218 When ever You have Thought and Conquered with your Ruyters & Swashbucklers. 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. vi. i. (1861) 184 He had a garrison after his own heart..guzzling, deep-drinking swashbucklers. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth iv, Neither did his frank and manly deportment..bear the least resemblance to that of the bravoes or swash-bucklers of the day. 1899 E. Gosse Life J. Donne I. 32 He shows himself..a daring..young swash-buckler of poetry. |
| attrib. 1620 Melton Astrolog. 13 What a quarrelling Swash-buckler Mars. 1672 Marvell Reh. Transp. I. 260 Men..do..cut and slash about vestments..rather in a swash⁓buckler and Hectoring way, than..like..Christians. 1816 Singer Hist. Cards 258 note, The swash-buckler manners of the youth of fashion in the reign of Elizabeth. 1896 Gen. H. Porter in Century Mag. Nov. 25 The most approved swashbuckler style of melodrama. |
b. A book, film, or other work portraying swashbuckling characters.
| 1975 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 27 July 20/3 Clavell's most ambitious novel—an oldfashioned swash⁓buckler complete with all the popular ingredients. 1977 Time 30 May 42/2 Star Wars is a combination of Flash Gordon, The Wizard of Oz, the Errol Flynn swashbucklers of the '30s and '40s and almost every western ever screened. |
Hence (
nonce-wds.)
ˈswashˌbucklerdom,
-ism,
-ˌbucklery, the conduct of a swashbuckler; also
ˈswashˌbucklering = swashbuckling a.
| 1862 Mrs. Speid Last Years Ind. 91 A sort of paralytic attempt at *swashbucklerdom and swagger. |
| 1884 19th Cent. Dec. 1023 The *swash-bucklering and speculative fashion which the Republican supporters..extolled. 1914 G. K. Chesterton Flying Inn 180 Such swashbucklering comedy. |
| 1892 Review of Rev. 14 Apr. 360/1 Mr. Gladstone has..been so sedulous an opponent of *swashbucklerism. |
| 1889 D. Hannay Life F. Marryat 21 He would have condemned..such a piece of frantic *swashbucklery as the last fight of the Revenge. |