[f. BOAST v.1 + -ING1.]
1. Ostentatious or vainglorious speaking.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 403. Þe gospel telliþ of bosting of a proude man.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 90 b. Iactaunce or bostynge, ypocrisy or fayned holynes.
1607. Shaks., Cor., II. i. 23. Topping all others in boasting.
1830. Tennyson, Poems, 32. Is not my human pride brought low? The boastings of my spirit still?
† 2. Threatening, menacing language. Obs.
1600. J. Melvill, Diary (1842), 68. He braks out in coler & bosting.
Hence † Boastingful a.
1552. in Huloet.
