Also 6–7 bumbast(e. [pa. pple. of BOMBASE v. to stuff; but in later use hardly separable from the sb. used attrib.]
† 1. Stuffed, padded, puffed out. Obs.
1575. Gascoigne, Wks. (1587), 157. Hys bombast hose wyth linings manifold.
1656. Artif. Handsomeness, 44. A bumbast or bolstered garment.
2. fig. Puffed, empty, inflated; over-elaborate. Of language: Turgid, grandiloquent, bombastic.
1604. Shaks., Oth., I. i. 13. A bumbast circumstance, Horribly stufft with Epithites of warre.
1616. Pasquil & Kath., IV. 316. I doe hate these bumbaste wits, That are puft vp with arrogant conceit.
1674. R. Godfrey, Inj. & Ab. Physic, 122. He scorns to be frightened at a Bombast word, or Fustian Term.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F. (1802), VI. 134, note. Forty bombast lines.
1834. Fraser’s Mag., X. 435. A frothy, verbose, and bombast writer.
1842. Maitland, Notes, etc. II. 26. The bombast exaggeration of his ignorant admirers.
