Forms: 4 bost(en, 4–5 boost(e, 5 boaste, 5–6 boste, 6 Sc. boist, 6–7 bost, 6– boast. [See the sb.] The primary sense was prob. ‘to lift up one’s voice,’ ‘speak with a loud voice.’
I. To threaten.
† 1. intr. To utter a threat, to threaten. Also with cogn. object of the thing threatened. Obs.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 2597. They bostodyn … Alisaundres hed of to smyte.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, II. xi. (x.) 119. The tree branglis, bosting to the fall.
1552. Abp. Hamilton, Catech., 28. Punitions … that God in haly scripture bostis and schoris aganis all the brekaris of his commandis.
c. 1610. Sir J. Melvil, Mem. (1683), 70. She boasted to marry the Arch-duke Charles of Austria.
† 2. trans. To threaten; to bully, terrify. Sc.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, X. xiv. 122. Quhat wenys thou so to effray and bost me?
1533. Bellenden, Livy, I. (1822), 101. And sum time begun to boist hir with deith.
1582–8. Hist. James VI. (1804), 137. He was boistit with toirtour unles he should tell.
1645. Rutherford, Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845), 371. Yonder standeth our Creator boasting us, and therefore we will obey.
1756. Mrs. Calderwood, Jrnl., v. (1884), 147. Some others near him boasted him for it.
II. To speak ostentatiously.
3. intr. To speak vaingloriously, extol oneself; to vaunt, brag; to brag of, about, glory in. (So To boast it: to practise boasting.)
c. 1340. Cursor M., 22289 (Trin.). Þat anticrist … he sal men do of him to boost Ouer alle oþere to preise moost.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. II. 80. To bakbite and to bosten · and bere fals witnesse.
c. 1420. Avow. Arth., xxiii. I, Kay, that thou knawes That owte of tyme bostus and blawus.
1587. Mirr. Mag., Stater, v. 5. I neede not of honour or dignitie boast.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., III. iii. 23. Nor should that Nation boast it so with vs.
1611. Bible, Ps. xliv. 8. In God we boast all the day long.
1655. Theophania, 80. I can never consent that [he] should boast in any favor of mine.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 73, ¶ 2. He has not much to boast of.
1844. Ld. Brougham, Brit. Const., x. (1862), 131. To boast of the honours enjoyed by their remote ancestors.
4. refl. in same sense. [Cf. Fr. se vanter.]
a. 1300. Cursor M., 17983. Iesu … Þat boost him goddes sone to be.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 92. Þat he boost him silf in his dede.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 86. To preyse and boste him self of his goode dedis.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 92. Whan he bosteth hymselfe to haue yt whiche he hath not.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. li. 1. Why boastest thou thy self … that thou canst do myschefe?
1611. Bible, Prov. xxvii. 1. Boast not thy selfe of to morrow. Ibid., Ps. lii. 1. Why boastest thou thyselfe in mischiefe, O mightie man?
1755. Johnson, in Boswell (1816), I. 242. That dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself.
1876. Green, Short Hist., ii. § 6 (1882), 88. The descendants of the victors at Senlac boasted themselves to be Englishmen.
5. trans. To extol; to speak of with pride or ostentation; to brag of, vaunt.
a. with obj. clause, usually with that. (? orig. intrans.)
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 53. To booste not þat we ben of holy chirche.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., cxxiii. No! Time, thou shalt not bost that I doe change.
1718. Pope, Iliad, II. 577. We … guess by rumour, and but boast we know.
1873. Morley, Rousseau, I. 234. Voltaire boasted that if he shook his wig, the powder flew over the whole of the tiny republic.
b. with simple object.
1543. Grafton, Contn. Harding, 524. When the duke beganne fyrste to prayse and boaste the Kyng.
1603. B. Jonson, Sejanus, V. xxiv. 63. Forbeare, you thinges … To boast your slippery height.
1671. Milton, P. R., I. 409. Who boast’st release from hell.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), II. I. § 2. 11. He boasted his having vanquished the enemy.
6. To display vaingloriously or proudly. arch.
1590. Greene, Orl. Fur. (1599), 23. Kinde Flora boast thy pride.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., 162. Would steer too nigh the Sands, to boast his Wit.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 126. A short Chain cut in Stone; of what use I know not, unless to boast the Skill of the Artificer.
1777. Sir W. Jones, Pal. Fortune, 28. In vain, ye flowers, you boast your vernal bloom.
7. fig. To possess as a thing to be proud of, to have to show.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Eclog., VIII. 10. Whatever Land or Sea thy Presence boast.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, IV. 463. A humble villager, who only boasts The treasure of the heart.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. xxvi. The clematis, the favoured flower, Which boasts the name of virgin-bower.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, xiii. 8. He boasts but a pouch of empty cobwebs.
