GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 3 definitions

1.       
   Flourish , 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.]
   To grow luxuriantly; to increase and enlarge, as a healthy growing plant; a thrive.
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   A tree thrives and flourishes in a kindly . . . soil.
   Bp. Horne.
   
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   To be prosperous; to increase in wealth, honor, comfort, happiness, or whatever is desirable; to thrive; to be prominent and influential; specifically, of authors, painters, etc., to be in a state of activity or production.
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   When all the workers of iniquity do flourish.
   Ps. xcii 7
   
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   Bad men as frequently prosper and flourish, and that by the means of their wickedness.
   Nelson.
   
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   We say
   Of those that held their heads above the crowd,
   They flourished then or then.
   Tennyson.
   
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   To use florid language; to indulge in rhetorical figures and lofty expressions; to be flowery.
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   They dilate . . . and flourish long on little incidents.
   J. Watts.
   
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   To make bold and sweeping, fanciful, or wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with fantastic and irregular motion.
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   Impetuous spread
   The stream, and smoking flourished o'er his head.
   Pope.
   
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   To make ornamental strokes with the pen; to write graceful, decorative figures.
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   To execute an irregular or fanciful strain of music, by way of ornament or prelude.
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   Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus?
   Shak.
   
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   To boast; to vaunt; to brag.
   Pope.
   
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2.       
   Flourish, v. t.
   To adorn with flowers or beautiful figures, either natural or artificial; to ornament with anything showy; to embellish. [Obs.]
   Fenton.
   
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   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.]
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   Sith that the justice of your title to him
   Doth flourish the deceit.
   Shak.
   
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   To move in bold or irregular figures; to swing about in circles or vibrations by way of show or triumph; to brandish.
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   And flourishes his blade in spite of me.
   Shak.
   
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   To develop; to make thrive; to expand. [Obs.]
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   Bottoms of thread . . . which with a good needle, perhaps may be flourished into large works.
   Bacon.
   
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3.       
   Flourish , n.; pl. Flourishes .
   A flourishing condition; prosperity; vigor. [Archaic]
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   The Roman monarchy, in her highest flourish, never had the like.
   Howell.
   
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   Decoration; ornament; beauty.
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   The flourish of his sober youth
   Was the pride of naked truth.
   Crashaw.
   
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   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.
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   He lards with flourishes his long harangue.
   Dryden.
   
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   A fanciful stroke of the pen or graver; a merely decorative figure.
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   The neat characters and flourishes of a Bible curiously printed.
   Boyle.
   
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   A fantastic or decorative musical passage; a strain of triumph or bravado, not forming part of a regular musical composition; a cal; a fanfare.
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   A flourish, trumpets! strike alarum, drums!
   Shak.
   
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   The waving of a weapon or other thing; a brandishing; as, the flourish of a sword.
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