Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Boastfulness; bravado.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A boast or boasting; vaunt; bravado; vaunting or boastful talk.
  • To boast; brag; vaunt; bluster.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A boast or boasting; a vaunt; a bravado; a bragging; braggodocio.
  • intransitive verb To boast; to brag; to bluster.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Boastful talk.
  • verb obsolete, derogatory To talk boastfully.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an instance of boastful talk
  • verb show off

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French gasconnade, from Gascon, Gascon; see Gascon.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French gasconnade.

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Examples

  • Morrow said there was too much of that kind of gasconade in America, and that after our desperate struggle at home we would not be likely to engage in one with England.

    Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet An Autobiography. John Sherman

  • In fact, the as-yet-unbuilt yacht is so big, it's actually a "Gigayacht", the press release adds, with a touch of gasconade--as though the author of the release said to himself "hang on old chap, megayacht sounds a bit runty", and went one bigger.

    Abramovich Speculated To Be Buyer Of Gigayacht 2006

  • Just now, when every one is bound, under pain of a decree in absence convicting them of lese-respectability, to enter on some lucrative profession, and labour therein with something not far short of enthusiasm, a cry from the opposite party who are content when they have enough, and like to look on and enjoy in the meanwhile, savours a little of bravado and gasconade.

    Virginibus Puerisque and other papers 2005

  • Everything has the proper look of a spectacular gasconade, and the most spectacular ingredient of all is newcomer Catherine Zeta Jones, a Steven Spielberg discovery whose dark eyes, porcelain skin and meltingly radiant yet mischievous smile reminded me of the late, great Natalie Wood.

    Banderas' Zorro-in-Training Sweats, Swashes 1998

  • Everything has the proper look of a spectacular gasconade, and the most spectacular ingredient of all is newcomer Catherine Zeta Jones, a Steven Spielberg discovery whose dark eyes, porcelain skin and meltingly radiant yet mischievous smile reminded me of the late, great Natalie Wood.

    Banderas' Zorro-in-Training Sweats, Swashes 1998

  • That was an ugly threat, if it was not mere gasconade.

    Washington Richard Harwell 1968

  • That was an ugly threat, if it was not mere gasconade.

    Washington Richard Harwell 1968

  • That was an ugly threat, if it was not mere gasconade.

    Washington Richard Harwell 1968

  • That was an ugly threat, if it was not mere gasconade.

    Washington Richard Harwell 1968

  • With all the gasconade common to Orientals generally, the chiefs of the countries I have mentioned, are cowards at heart, tyrants as they are when opportunity offers; and they dread the sight of a ship of war in their harbours.

    Trade and Travel in the Far East or Recollections of twenty-one years passed in Java, Singapore, Australia and China. G. F. Davidson

Comments

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  • "a boast or vaunt of something very improbable." (citation in list description)

    OED definition 2: "One who resembles a Gascon in character; a braggart, boaster (the natives of Gascony being notorious as such)."

    October 9, 2008

  • JM is one of the very few people who know the meaning of 'gasconade'!

    February 16, 2009

  • Is JM method acting today?

    February 16, 2009

  • "Invariably I have some refreshment placed upon the fortepiano of the bushy-haired, gasconading lout of a band leader."

    Berlin Stories by Robert Walser, translated by Susan Bernofsky, pp 54-55 of the NYRB paperback

    May 9, 2012