[f. as prec. + -ING2.]
1. That vaunts or boasts; given or addicted to boasting.
1589. Nashe, Anat. Absurditie, Wks. (Grosart), I. 51. No matter though such vanting vpstarts … become the scoffe of a Scholler.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., V. iii. 43. Many a Nobleman lies starke and stiffe Vnder the hooues of vaunting enemies.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 231. I my selfe have seen these vaunting Mountebanks calling themselves Psylli.
1632. Sherwood, A vaunting woman, ostentatrice.
1714. Gay, Sheph. Week, i. 39. Begin thy carols, then, thou vaunting slouch.
1730. Bailey (fol.), Braggard, a bragging, vaunting, vain glorious fellow.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, xxxix. Would to God, Richard, or any of his vaunting minions of England, would appear in these lists!
1853. Lynch, Self-Improv., ii. 45. An empty, vaunting person who has brass enough to face the world and to say there is no God in it.
1884. Marshall’s Tennis Cuts, 195. In the evenings he was vaunting, boastful, and declared he could play even Renshaw at evens.
transf. 1599. Shaks., Hen. V., II. iii. 4. Nim, rowse thy vaunting Veines: Boy, brissle thy Courage vp.
2. Of a boastful nature or character; indicative of, proceeding from, boasting or vainglory.
1647. Hexham, I. s.v., Vaunting and bragging wordes.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. xi. 252. The vaunting accounts given by the Spaniards of her size, her guns, and her strength.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch’s Lives (1879), I. 134/1. The vaunting shouts and songs of the barbarians.
1802. Med. Jrnl., VIII. 66. Does not Pyrrho likewise speak in a ‘vaunting manner’ on several occasions?
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xxi. IV. 583. Over one gate had been placed a vaunting inscription which defied the allies to wrench the prize from the grasp of France.
1897. ‘Sarah Tytler,’ Lady Jean’s Son, 205. Rejoicing over him in a vaunting and insolent manner.
