D defs.my
Entry 5 senses · 3 variants Webster, 1913

Bombast

/(bŏm"bȧst [or] bŭm"bȧst; 277)/ · Bom·bast · IPA /ˈbɑmbæst/
01 n. Originally, cotton, or cotton wool.
  1. 1.
    Originally, cotton, or cotton wool.[Obs.]
    “A candle with a wick of bombast.” — Lupton.
  2. 2.
    Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing; padding.[Obs.]
    “How now, my sweet creature of bombast!” Shak.
    “Doublets, stuffed with four, five, or six pounds of bombast at least.” — Stubbes.
  3. 3.
    Fig.: High-sounding words; an inflated style; language above the dignity of the occasion; fustian.
    “Yet noisy bombast carefully avoid.” Dryden.
02 a. High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent; bombastic.
  1. 1.
    High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent; bombastic.
    “[He] evades them with a bombast circumstance, Horribly stuffed with epithets of war.” Shak.
    “Nor a tall metaphor in bombast way.” — Cowley.
03 v. t. To swell or fill out; to pad; to inflate.
  1. 1.
    To swell or fill out; to pad; to inflate.[Obs.]
    “Not bombasted with words vain ticklish ears to feed.” Drayton.