brag
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
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a boast or vaunt.
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a thing to boast of.
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a boaster.
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an old English card game similar to poker.
adjective
verb
noun
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boastful talk or behaviour, or an instance of this
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something boasted of
his brag was his new car
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a braggart; boaster
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a card game: an old form of poker
Synonym Usage
See boast 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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braggernoun
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braggingnoun
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overbragverb
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outbragverb (used with object)
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braglessadjective
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unbraggingadjective
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bragginglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bragsimple
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bragssimple
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have braggedperfect
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has braggedperfect
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am braggingprogressive
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are braggingprogressive
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is braggingprogressive
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have been braggingperfect progressive
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has been braggingperfect progressive
Past
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braggedsimple
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had braggedperfect
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was braggingprogressive
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were braggingprogressive
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had been braggingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of brag
1350–1400; Middle English brag (noun) ostentation, arrogance, braggen (v.); of obscure origin
Explanation
When you're bragging, you're boasting. If you can't stop talking about your fancy new shoes, that's bragging. Ever notice how some people are full of themselves and constantly telling you about the great things they've done? Those folks like to brag. Bragging is a verbal kind of showing off. We all do it sometimes, and it's almost always annoying when other people do it. A specific boast can be called a brag. Athletes often brag before big games. But only the winners can brag after, because they backed up their words.
Vocabulary lists containing brag
Sonnet 18
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"My Superpowers"
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The Lions of Little Rock
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Your column, appropriately so for its purpose, focuses heavily on financial literacy, and some of your writers brag about how savvy they are.
From MarketWatch ● May 13, 2026
The Justice Department’s announcement came with a brag: They are “pursuing the highest volume of denaturalization referrals in history.”
From Salon ● Apr. 26, 2026
According to Sheets’ cast bio, the antiques enthusiast loved to brag about “four Picassos and the world’s most lucrative comic book collection” that he scored through storage auctions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026
If you have drawn him in the sweepstake, you have a Pair rather than a Prial, which is the highest hand in three card brag.
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2026
“I thought you did it for more keys, so you can brag to Wiki Ellison.”
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
He keeps going to the doctor, has bruises on both hands, and brags about passing dementia tests.
From Slate ● Jun. 23, 2026
To this day, he brags about getting kicked out of casinos all over the world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 2026
Nobody brags about water stocks at cocktail parties — that’s how you know they might actually work.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 9, 2025
I’m sure he can do push-ups, as he constantly brags.
From Salon ● Dec. 3, 2025
“I have a cousin who goes there. She’s insufferable and always brags about how great it is there. I loved rubbing the score in her face! ”
From "Here to Stay" by Sara Farizan
A witness also alleged that Matlala had bragged about his "close connections with very senior police officials", including Sibiya, following his arrest in May last year.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
In a lengthy second post, Trump bragged about steps he has taken to beautify Washington, including resurfacing the bottom of the Reflecting Pool with an "American flag blue" coating used in swimming pools.
From Barron's ● Jun. 28, 2026
The tale contradicts comments he made to reporters on May 4, when he bragged that the new lining was “very strong” and “if you had a knife, you can’t even cut it.”
From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026
“Our first trillion-dollar market was connectivity,” the company bragged in its prospectus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
Standing in the shallow water, T.R. barked and bragged his white-tipped tail like he’d done something to get praised for.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
"To bring in talent, you need money... I'm not bragging -- give me 30 or 50 kids, train them here for three years, and I'll make the whole world know about guanniu."
From Barron's ● Jun. 28, 2026
So being selected early isn’t just about bragging rights — it’s also a major financial windfall that can determine a player’s earnings for the next several years.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
That might seem like an odd bragging point.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
The 41-year-old Vance makes great hay out of his relative youth on Capitol Hill, right up to bragging as often as possible about his pregnant wife.
From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2026
After all the bragging I had done about what a good monkey catcher I was, I hated like the dickens to go and face him, but I couldn’t just run away.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
