Definitions for the word "flourish" from multiple English dictionaries.
1. v. i.
To grow luxuriantly; to increase and enlarge, as a healthy growing plant; a thrive.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
2. v. i.
To be prosperous; to increase in wealth, honor, comfort, happiness, or whatever is desirable; to thrive; to be prominent and influental; specifically, of authors, painters, etc., to be in a state of activity or production.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
3. v. i.
To use florid language; to indulge in rhetorical figures and lofty expressions; to be flowery.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
4. v. i.
To make bold and sweeping, fanciful, or wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with fantastic and irregular motion.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
5. v. i.
To make ornamental strokes with the pen; to write graceful, decorative figures.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
6. v. i.
To execute an irregular or fanciful strain of music, by way of ornament or prelude.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
7. v. i.
To boast; to vaunt; to brag.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
8. v. t.
To adorn with flowers orbeautiful figures, either natural or artificial; to ornament with anything showy; to embellish.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
9. v. t.
To embellish with the flowers of diction; to adorn with rhetorical figures; to grace with ostentatious eloquence; to set off with a parade of words.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
10. v. t.
To move in bold or irregular figures; to swing about in circles or vibrations by way of show or triumph; to brandish.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
11. v. t.
To develop; to make thrive; to expand.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
12. n.
A flourishing condition; prosperity; vigor.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
13. n.
Decoration; ornament; beauty.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
14. n.
Something made or performed in a fanciful, wanton, or vaunting manner, by way of ostentation, to excite admiration, etc.; ostentatious embellishment; ambitious copiousness or amplification; parade of words and figures; show; as, a flourish of rhetoric or of wit.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
15. n.
A fanciful stroke of the pen or graver; a merely decorative figure.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
16. n.
A fantastic or decorative musical passage; a strain of triumph or bravado, not forming part of a regular musical composition; a cal; a fanfare.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
17. n.
The waving of a weapon or other thing; a brandishing; as, the flourish of a sword.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
18. v.
1 a grow vigorously; thrive. B prosper. C be in one''s prime. 2 wave, brandish. n. 1 showy gesture. 2 ornamental curve in handwriting. 3 mus. Ornate passage or fanfare. [latin floreo from flos *flower]
Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 1884
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Additional Info
This page provides a list of definitions and meanings for "flourish" from various historical English dictionaries. By displaying multiple definitions, you can compare and
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