ostentatious, a.
(ɒstənˈteɪʃəs)
[f. ostentation: see -ious. Has displaced the earlier ostentative, ostentatory, ostentive, ostentous.]
1. Characterized or marked by ostentation: a. Of actions, personal qualities, etc.: Performed, exercised, or set forth in a way calculated to attract attention or admiration; boastful.
| [1656 Blount Glossogr., Ostentatitious [? mispr.], set out for shew or vain-glory.] 1701 Biog. in Stanley's Hist. Philos. 9 This Philosophy has..charmed a World of People by its Proud and Ostentatious Principles. 1716 Addison Freeholder No. 39 ¶5 His Religion was sincere, not ostentatious. 1782 F. Burney Cecilia ii. ii, A display of importance so ostentatious made Cecilia already half repent her visit. 1825 Macaulay Ess., Milton (1887) 16 To imitate the ostentatious generosity of those ancient knights. 1849 ― Hist. Eng. vii. II. 187 Lewis, with that ostentatious contempt of public law which was characteristic of him, occupied Orange..and confiscated the revenues. 1874 Helps Soc. Press. xiv. 190 Sir John had taken up his place in a corner of the room, in an attitude of ostentatious humility. |
b. Of a person.
In quot. 1673 app. Making a false show, pretentious.
| 1658 [implied in ostentatiousness]. 1673 Dryden Marr. à la Mode iv. v, As ostentatious priests, when souls they woo, Promise their heaven to all, but grant to few. 1700 Dryden Fables Ded. (1721) 4 Lest I offend your modesty, which is so far from being ostentatious of the good you do that it blushes even to have it known. 1791 Boswell Life Johnson Advt., Were I to detail the books which I have consulted..I should probably be thought ridiculously ostentatious. 1818–60 Whately Comm.-pl. Bk. (1864) 150 A woman who is really beautiful and is always making a show of herself..would be justly censured as ostentatious. 1865 Livingstone Zambesi xxv. 521 They are not, like the Mohammedans, ostentatious in their prayers. 1884 A. Paul Hist. Reform. iv. 71 Active and ostentatious partisans of the French revolutionary movement. |
2. Fitted by appearance, position, or the like to attract attention; conspicuous, showy. Obs. (or blending with 1 a).
| 1713 Steele Guard. No. 6 ¶5 Coach or troop horses, of which that county produces the most strong and ostentatious. 1790 Pennant London (1813) 618 That honorable memorial..should..be placed in the most ostentatious situation. 1883 Froude Short Stud. IV. v. 356 This pair..are the chief figures in the most ostentatious monument in the..chapel. |