Now arch. [f. VAUNT v.] The action of the vb.; boasting, bragging.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 1145. Honours nuryshes, als men may se, Vayn glory, vauntyng and vanite.
1586. Day, Eng. Secretary, II. (1625), 51. I could alwaies find an Asse by his braying, and scorne a rascall though he were neuer so full of vaunting.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., IV. iii. 52. You say, you are a better Souldier: Let it appeare so; make your vaunting true.
1611. Bible, Wisdom xvii. 7. As for the illusions of arte Magicke, they were put downe, and their vaunting in wisedome was reprooued with disgrace.
1826. Scott, Woodst., vii. Be moderate in speech, and forbear oaths or vaunting.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 349. To our generation the honest vaunting of our ancestors must appear almost ludicrous.
1864. Burton, Scot. Abr., I. iii. 112. The Earl of Flanders … having, in his vain vaunting, defeated so important a project.
attrib. c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LXIV. v. The hartes uprightly playn Shall have their vaunting scope.
b. An instance of this; a boast.
1793. Ld. Auckland, Corr. (1862), III. 27. His vauntings increase with his disgraces.
a. 1800. Cowper, Iliad (ed. 2), XXI. 550. Let ine never in my father’s courts Such vauntings hear of thine again.
1838. Dickens, Lett. (1880), I. 8. We had many delightful vauntings of the same kind.
1877. Smith’s Dict. Chr. Biog., I. 133/2. The hypocritical vauntings of Clytemnestra.
