Definitions for: Flourish


[n] (music) a short lively tune played on brass instruments; "he entered to a flourish of trumpets"; "her arrival was greeted with a rousing fanfare"
[n] the act of waving
[n] a display of ornamental speech or language
[n] a showy gesture; "she entered with a great flourish"
[n] an ornamental embellishment in writing
[v] grow stronger; "The economy was booming"
[v] move or swing back and forth; "She waved her gun."
[v] gain in wealth



Webster (1913) Definition: Flour"ish, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Flourished; p. pr. &
vb. n. Flourishing.] [OE. florisshen, flurisshen, OF.
flurir, F. fleurir, fr. L. florere to bloom, fr. flos,
floris, flower. See Flower, and -ish.]
1. To grow luxuriantly; to increase and enlarge, as a healthy
growing plant; a thrive.

A tree thrives and flourishes in a kindly . . .
soil. --Bp. Horne.

2. To be prosperous; to increase in wealth, honor, comfort,
happiness, or whatever is desirable; to thrive; to be
prominent and influental; specifically, of authors,
painters, etc., to be in a state of activity or
production.

When all the workers of iniquity do flourish. --Ps.
xcii 7

Bad men as frequently prosper and flourish, and that
by the means of their wickedness. --Nelson.

We say Of those that held their heads above the
crowd, They flourished then or then. --Tennyson.

3. To use florid language; to indulge in rhetorical figures
and lofty expressions; to be flowery.

They dilate . . . and flourish long on little
incidents. --J. Watts.

4. To make bold and sweeping, fanciful, or wanton movements,
by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with
fantastic and irregular motion.

Impetuous spread The stream, and smoking flourished
o'er his head. --Pope.

5. To make ornamental strokes with the pen; to write
graceful, decorative figures.

6. To execute an irregular or fanciful strain of music, by
way of ornament or prelude.

Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus? --Shak.

7. To boast; to vaunt; to brag. --Pope.


Flour"ish, v. t.
1. To adorn with flowers orbeautiful figures, either natural
or artificial; to ornament with anything showy; to
embellish. [Obs.] --Fenton.

2. To embellish with the flowers of diction; to adorn with
rhetorical figures; to grace with ostentatious eloquence;
to set off with a parade of words. [Obs.]

Sith that the justice of your title to him Doth
flourish the deceit. --Shak.

3. To move in bold or irregular figures; to swing about in
circles or vibrations by way of show or triumph; to
brandish.

And flourishes his blade in spite of me. --Shak.

4. To develop; to make thrive; to expand. [Obs.]

Bottoms of thread . . . which with a good needle,
perhaps may be flourished into large works. --Bacon.


Flour"ish, n.; pl. Flourishes.
1. A flourishing condition; prosperity; vigor. [Archaic]

The Roman monarchy, in her highest flourish, never
had the like. --Howell.

2. Decoration; ornament; beauty.

The flourish of his sober youth Was the pride of
naked truth. --Crashaw.

3. Something made or performed in a fanciful, wanton, or
vaunting manner, by way of ostentation, to excite
admiration, etc.; ostentatious embellishment; ambitious
copiousness or amplification; parade of words and figures;
show; as, a flourish of rhetoric or of wit.

He lards with flourishes his long harangue.
--Dryden.

4. A fanciful stroke of the pen or graver; a merely
decorative figure.

The neat characters and flourishes of a Bible
curiously printed. --Boyle.

5. A fantastic or decorative musical passage; a strain of
triumph or bravado, not forming part of a regular musical
composition; a cal; a fanfare.

A flourish, trumpets! strike alarum, drums! --Shak.

6. The waving of a weapon or other thing; a brandishing; as,
the flourish of a sword.

Synonyms: boom, brandish, brandish, expand, fanfare, fligh high, get ahead, prosper, prosper, thrive, thrive, wave

See Also: air, change state, displace, embellishment, gesture, grandiloquence, grandiosity, grow, hold, line, luxuriate, magniloquence, melodic line, melodic phrase, melody, motion, move, paraph, revive, rhetoric, strain, take hold, tune, turn, wafture, wave, waving, wigwag

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