bloviate
Americanverb (used without object)
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bloviate
1850–55, pseudo-Latin alteration of blow 2 to boast; popularized by Warren G. Harding
Explanation
To bloviate is to talk, but not just to chat. To bloviate means to go on and on and on and on, usually in a pompous way. Can you hear the blow in the word bloviate? That's a clue that someone bloviating is blowing some serious hot air. When someone bloviates, he is speaking in an empty, pretentious, full-of-himself manner. This word is often associated with politicians, who probably invented bloviating. When someone is talking a lot and saying a little, they're bloviating.
Vocabulary lists containing bloviate
Word Warriors: Four Years of Words Worth Reviving
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Words Coined or Popularized by Presidents
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Ben Zimmer's 30 Great American Words
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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:
These days, the role of the “paid contributor” — a commentator on contract, to bloviate on demand — is fully baked into the TV news ecosystem.
From New York Times ● Mar. 27, 2024
This was one of those occasions when men, especially those of us in the media accustomed to our own freedom to bloviate, were best served trying to listen and learn.
From Salon ● Sep. 29, 2018
They are glib, charming, insulting, cranky, funny, learned, loud, insightful — we’re talking TV hosts here, who chat, judge, entertain, bloviate and moderate their way through popular day and nighttime shows with ease.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 7, 2017
Example: It’s tough to watch them bloviate about sweeping change when our internal processes are still such a mess.
From Time ● Jul. 27, 2015
Now we have to sit around all summer and listen to LeBron James bloviate about the inevitability of his wonderfulness.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 1, 2012
While Trump bloviated about tariffs, the Hispanic Republican Club chair nibbled on dessert.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026
"I wear with pride his drunken, bloviated scorn. Please don’t cry," the lawmaker joked, referencing Boehner's reputation for appearing publicly emotional at various points throughout his career.
From Fox News ● Apr. 12, 2021
What, besides the bloviated tweets that will accompany even the most modest ratings victory?
From Salon ● Jan. 1, 2017
“The majority of men do it, and all would be mortified if others heard their bloviated stories.”
From Washington Times ● Oct. 9, 2016
The notion of a younger generation calling out hypocrisy by actually taking the actions an older generation only bloviated about holds some appeal, but the play is more interested in validating several wearying middle-age fantasies.
From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2016
Some might find it humanizing—proof that below the bloviating gestalt, the president can become awed by existential futility.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
“Hamnet,” by contrast, is to feeling what Polonius, the famously bloviating cliché-monger in “Hamlet,” is to wisdom.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 2025
The "Call Her Daddy" conversation was not the contentious tête-à-tête the chattering class has come to expect after decades of cable news bloviating somehow came to represent meaningful political coverage.
From Salon ● Oct. 8, 2024
He went on to thread that “Daddy Musk,” for all his uninformed bloviating about “muh 1st Amendment free speech,” is not going to stop content moderation at Twitter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 27, 2022
His passion when bloviating was furious and terrible to look upon; but there was nothing to it more than sound and pretense.
From The Vigilance Committee of 1856 by James O'Meara
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.
