vaunt

American  

[vawnt, vahnt] / vɔnt, vɑnt /

verb (used with object)

1. to speak vaingloriously of; boast of.

   to vaunt one's achievements.

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verb (used without object)

1. to speak boastfully; brag.

noun

1. a boastful action or utterance.

vaunt British  

/ vɔːnt /

verb

1. (tr) to describe, praise, or display (one's success, possessions, etc) boastfully

2. rare (intr) to use boastful language; brag

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noun

1. a boast

2. archaic ostentatious display

Other Word Forms

• outvaunt
  verb (used with object)
• vaunter
  noun
• vauntingly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of vaunt

1350–1400; Middle English vaunten < Middle French vanter to boast < Late Latin vānitāre, frequentative of *vānāre, derivative of Latin vānus vain. See vanity

Explanation

To vaunt is to brag and boast and flaunt and go on and on about how great something is. It's over-the-top showing off, and when you exaggerate your greatness, you vaunt to the point of no longer seeming so great. From the Latin vānitāre — which comes from vānus, meaning "vain" or "empty" — vaunt is a verb for taking praise too far or talking something up too much. Even if it's earned or deserved bragging, vaunting about something gets old and loses its impact. Other times, vaunt, as a noun, is a sure sign that a hard sell is going on — someone is talking big but can't deliver.

Example Sentences

Intel’s augmented reality project produced a prototype, Vaunt, which was tested with consumers.

From New York Times • Dec. 30, 2021

In 2018, Intel shut down the Vaunt project, before selling many of its patents to North, the start-up acquired by Google.

From New York Times • Dec. 30, 2021

Jerry Bautista, the lead for Vaunt, told me back in December that Intel was ”working with key ecosystem hardware providers — whether they’re frames or lenses and things like that.

From The Verge • Apr. 18, 2018

Until then, what I can tell you is that I found the experience of trying Vaunt to be much more compelling than the overly-techy cyborg AR glasses I tried at CES last month.

From The Verge • Feb. 5, 2018

Vaunt it, flaunt it, All the world to know.

From The Silver Crown Another Book of Fables by Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe