From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Bombast \Bom"bast\ (b[o^]m"b[.a]st or b[u^]m"b[.a]st; 277), n.
[OF. bombace cotton, LL. bombax cotton, bombasium a doublet
of cotton; hence, padding, wadding, fustian. See
{Bombazine}.]
1. Originally, cotton, or cotton wool. [Obs.]
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A candle with a wick of bombast. --Lupton.
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2. Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing
for garments; stuffing; padding. [Obs.]
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How now, my sweet creature of bombast! --Shak.
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Doublets, stuffed with four, five, or six pounds of
bombast at least. --Stubbes.
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3. Fig.: High-sounding words; an inflated style; language
above the dignity of the occasion; fustian.
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Yet noisy bombast carefully avoid. --Dryden.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Bombast \Bom"bast\, a.
High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent;
bombastic.
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[He] evades them with a bombast circumstance,
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war. --Shak.
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Nor a tall metaphor in bombast way. --Cowley.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Bombast \Bom*bast"\ (b[o^]m*b[.a]st" or b[u^]m*b[.a]st"), v. t.
To swell or fill out; to pad; to inflate. [Obs.]
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Not bombasted with words vain ticklish ears to feed.
--Drayton.
[1913 Webster] Bombastic
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
bombast
n 1: pompous or pretentious talk or writing [syn: {bombast},
{fustian}, {rant}, {claptrap}, {blah}]
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