brag

American  

[brag] / bræg /

verb (used without object)

• brags,
  present (3rd person singular)
• bragged,
  past participle,  past
• bragging
  present participle

1. to use boastful language; boast.

   He bragged endlessly about his high score.

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verb (used with object)

• brags,
  present (3rd person singular)
• bragged,
  past participle,  past
• bragging
  present participle

1. to boast of.

   He bragged that he had won.

   Antonyms:

   depreciate

noun

1. a boast or vaunt.

2. a thing to boast of.

3. a boaster.

4. an old English card game similar to poker.

adjective

1. Archaic. unusually fine; first-rate.

brag British  

/ bræɡ /

verb

1. to speak of (one's own achievements, possessions, etc) arrogantly and boastfully

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noun

1. boastful talk or behaviour, or an instance of this

2. something boasted of

   his brag was his new car

3. a braggart; boaster

4. a card game: an old form of poker

Synonym Usage

See boast ¹.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• bragger
  noun
• bragging
  noun
• overbrag
  verb
• outbrag
  verb (used with object)
• bragless
  adjective
• unbragging
  adjective
• braggingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• bragging
  present
• bragged
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• brag
  simple
• brags
  simple
• have bragged
  perfect
• has bragged
  perfect
• am bragging
  progressive
• are bragging
  progressive
• is bragging
  progressive
• have been bragging
  perfect progressive
• has been bragging
  perfect progressive

Past

• bragged
  simple
• had bragged
  perfect
• was bragging
  progressive
• were bragging
  progressive
• had been bragging
  perfect progressive

Future

• will brag
  simple
• will have bragged
  perfect
• will be bragging
  progressive
• will have been bragging
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

brag brags bragged bragging

Nick Florko doesn’t want to brag or anything, but more than a year ago he wrote an article that has come to seem prescient.

From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2026

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

“This is going to make him brag even more than he already does.”

From "Trouble at the Arcade (The Hardy Boys: Secret Files, #1)" by Franklin W. Dixon

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

But they’re the good guys, while dear Carrington, who brags about out-billing them on the regular, has held onto her bitterness.

From Salon ● Nov. 6, 2025

One woman brags that she can read and write upside down and backward, and that when she writes with her right hand, her left hand can follow along and write the same sentence backward.

From "A Mango-Shaped Space" by Wendy Mass

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

He bragged that he’s led over 130 missions in over 30 nations, but claimed ignorance when asked for details of these daring rescues.

From Salon ● Jun. 8, 2026

“Our first trillion-dollar market was connectivity,” the company bragged in its prospectus.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

I got attention by acting grown up, and my mother bragged about how early I was toilet trained and how clearly I spoke.

From "Three Little Words: A Memoir" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter

She added: "He posted on social media videos essentially bragging he was in Brazil."

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

Davis’ lawyers will seek to show he is a fabricator — his bragging is all fiction.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

It was like they saw it as bragging, like ‘Ugh, fine, we get it, you’re educated.’

From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026

What she’s earned are Instagram followers—more than 100,000 since the World Cup began, bringing her total to 2.8 million—plus bragging rights: “Mbappe sees all my stories. So does Neymar,” she says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026

Daisy said, “You’re always bragging what a good tree climber you are. Why didn’t you climb the tree and get the ribbons back for me?”

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls

Related Words

• boast
• crow
• gloat