braggadocio
Americannoun
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vain empty boasting
-
a person who boasts; braggart
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of braggadocio
After Braggadocchio, boastful character in Spenser's Faerie Queene (1590), apparently a pseudo-Italian coinage based on brag
Explanation
Braggadocio means not only bragging, but bragging about something that’s not true. When your friend boasts of a private yacht, ten personal servants, and nightly caviar dinners, that’s braggadocio, unless he happens to live on the French Riviera. Braggadocio comes from the word brag, but saves you the trouble of calling someone's bragging a lie by giving you one word that does both. You might say that the new guy at work who keeps telling stories about his heroic genius for fixing any computer is full of braggadocio — since when you asked him for help with yours, he had no idea what to do.
Vocabulary lists containing braggadocio
100 SAT Words Beginning with "B"
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National Spelling Bee '14: Prelims Round 2
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Least Presidential Vocabulary Used by Presidential Candidates during the GOP Debate (Sept. 16, 2015)
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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.
Braggadocio takes you far in politics or business; jocks, however, have to prove it in sweat.
From New York Times • Nov. 2, 2023
When an editor named Braggadocio posits that Mussolini didn’t actually die in 1945, but lived a shadowy and influential existence for decades afterward, the book turns darker and knottier.
From New York Times • Nov. 25, 2015
Braggadocio has always been a valuable commodity for a rapper to possess, but talking to these three artists, it is clear they all have confidence in common.
From The Guardian • Jul. 29, 2010
Citizens of a Missouri town called Braggadocio hammered and sawed industriously in their town square.
From Time Magazine Archive
Braggadocio here plays a great part, and also the desire to act like grown-ups.
From The Sexual Life of the Child by Paul, Eden
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.
