sb. Also 9 fanfaronnade, -arronade. [ad. F. fanfaronnade, f. fanfaron. Cf. Sp. fanfarronada.]
1. Boisterous or arrogant language, boastful assertion, brag; ostentation; an instance of this.
1652. Urquhart, Jewel, Wks. (1834), 217. The Gasconads of France, Rodomontads of Spain, Fanfaronads of Italy, and Bragadochio brags of all other countries, could no more astonish his invincible heart, then would the cheeping of a mouse a bear robbed of her whelps.
a. 1745. Swift, Pref. Bp. Sarum’s Intro., Wks. 1841. I. 379 b. The bishop copied this proceeding from the fanfaronade of Monsieur Bouffleurs.
1784. Bage, Barham Downs, II. 259. The chevalier resented this; the Signora resented the resentment: he damned her ingratitude; she, his fanfaronade; the fine bond of union broke——and so they parted.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 24. A book seriously recommended by Mr. Goldoni; but which diverted me only by the fanfaronades that it contained.
1814. Scott, Diary, 24 Aug. He seems to … act … like a chief, without the fanfaronade of the character.
1865. Kingsley, Herew. (1866), I. xii. 242. They gabbed only in sport, and outvied each other in impossible fanfarronades, simply to laugh down a fashion which was held inconsistent with the modesty of a true knight.
¶ 2. = FANFARE.
1812. Examiner, 12 Oct., 652/2. The fanfarronade … of the favourite Hussars.
1861. Dutton, Cook P. Foster’s D., i. So much by way of a fanfaronade before the showman pulls the strings.
Hence Fanfaronade v. intr., to bluster, swagger. Fanfaronading vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. I. viii. 58. With ceremonial evolution and manœuvre, with fanfaronading … they made oath … to stand faithfully by one another. Ibid., II. VI. viii. 422. Fanfaronading emigrants.
1878. Bayne, Purit. Rev., v. 157. Napoleon, if he had recollected, on the eve of his Russian expedition, that his professed contempt for impossibility was useful only for fanfaronading purposes, might never have heard the sighing of the waves at St. Helena.
