Flourish sb.

Forms: 6 florishe, (Sc. flureise, -ss, fleureis, flurish), 6–7 florish, 7 floorish, 7–8 flowrish, 6– flourish. [f. next vb.]

  1.  The blossom or mass of flowers on a fruit-tree. Also occas. in pl. Only Sc. and north dial.

a. 1500.  Cokelbie Sow, Proem. 41.

1548.  Compl. Scot., vi. 38. The borial blastis of the thre borouing dais of marche hed chaissit the fragrant flureise of euyrie frute tree far athourt the feildis.

a. 1605.  Montgomery, Misc. Poems, xvii. 57.

1635.  Rutherford, Lett., 22 April (1863), I. 144. There shall be fair white flourishes again, with most pleasant fruits, upon that tree of life.

1868.  Atkinson, Cleveland Gloss., Flourish, the blossom on fruit-trees.

1892.  Boyd, 25 Years St. Andrews, II. xxi. 139–40. I had been cheered by finding some very fine ‘flourish’ in a dirty back-court in the town, where doubless the trees were kept warmer.

  † b.  pl. = flowers (see FLOWER sb. 2 b).

1605.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. Lawe, 85.

  † 2.  The state or condition of being in blossom, blossoming. Of vegetation: Luxuriant growth, luxuriance, greenness. Obs.

1594.  J. Dickenson, Arisbas (1878), 75.

1619.  Z. Boyd, Battell Soul (1629), 1101. The tree is first seene in the budde and then in the flourish, and after in the fruite, so muste the life of man bee.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, I. 117. The Country appear’d so fresh, so green, so flourishing, every thing being in a constant Verdure, or Flourish of Spring, that it looked like a planted Garden.

1801.  Southey, Thalaba, VIII. xvii.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxxi. Fruit-trees, so many of which were at this time in flourish, that the grove seemed enamelled with their crimson and white blossoms.

  b.  fig. Prosperity, vigor; the ‘bloom’ (of youth). Also, the highest degree of prosperity; perfection, prime. Now rare.

1597.  J. Payne, Royal Exch., 38. To be howld … wycked men to have the fayrest shew and greatest florishe.

1612.  Brerewood, Lang. & Relig., iii. 20. The Romans had generally (at least in the after-times, when Rome was become a Monarchy, and in the flourish of the Empire) great care to enlarge their tongue, together with their Dominion.

1665.  Life Earl Essex, in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793), 157. The earl of Essex was then in the flourish of his youth, and full of fire and courage.

1709.  Hearne, Collect., 27 Aug. For the sake of the university of Francfurt and to commemorate the Foundation & Increase & Flourish of the same.

1826.  Scott, Woodst., xi. The flourish of his powerful relative’s fortunes had burst forth in the finery of his dress, which was much more ornamented than was usual among the roundheads.

1848.  Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, iv. I believe that ours is the only country in the world now where the Court Circular remains in full flourish.

  † 3.  Ostentatious embellishment; gloss, varnish.

1588.  Shaks., Loves Labour’s Lost, IV. iii. 238.

c. 1632.  Crashaw, Epitaph Mr. Herrys.

  † 4.  A florid decoration; a piece of scroll-work, tracery, or the like. Obs.

1695.  Phil. Trans., XIX. 154. An Octagonal Tower of a considerable Height, viz. 107 Steps, and beautified on the Outside with Florishes.

1711.  Bailey, A flourish [in Architecture] is a Flower Work.

1764.  Harmer, Observ., III. iv. 134. Cracknells, if they are all over England of the same form, are full of holes, being formed into a kind of flourish of lattice-work.

  fig.  1675.  Traherne, Chr. Ethics, xxviii. 443. Mistake not these things for arbitrary flourishes of luxuriant fancy: I speak as I am inspired by Felicity.

  b.  In Penmanship, a decoration about a letter or writing, consisting of flowing curves executed with a sweep of the pen.

1652.  H. More, Antid. Ath., II. vi. 68. They were intended onley for ludicrous ornaments of Nature, like the flourishes about a great letter that signify nothing, but are made only to delight the eye.

1758.  J. Blake, Plan Mar. Syst., 8. In the middle of this sheet … let a flourish be printed, so that the sheet may be cut in two, indentwise.

1831.  Lamb, Lett. to Dyer (1888), II. 268. By your flourishes, I should think you never learned to make eagles or corkscrews, or flourish the governors’ names in the writing-school.

1861.  Sala, Dutch Pictures, 2. I have seen, ere now, an original Rembrandt (with a flourish to the R at which the boldest of sceptics would not dare to cavil), dated 1560.

  5.  Literary or rhetorical embellishment; ambitious copiousness or amplification; parade of fine words or phrases; a florid expression.

1603.  Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 74. By a flourish of fine words, they devise shifts, evasions, and justifications, not philosophicall but sophisticall.

1673.  True Worship God, 56. Those pleasing Varieties and Flourishes in Pulpit Harangues.

1708.  Berkeley, Commonpl. Bk., Wks. 1871, IV. 492. I abstain from all flourish & powers of words & figures, using a great plainness & simplicity of simile, having oft found it difficult to understand those that use the lofty & Platonic, or subtil & scholastique strain.

1823.  Scott, Peveril, xlvi. He commenced with a flourish about his sufferings for the Plot, which the impatience of Ormond would have cut short, had not the King reminded his Grace, that a top, when it is not flogged, must needs go down of itself at the end of a definite time, while the application of the whip may keep it up for hours.

1867.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. App. 542. These unusual phrases are clearly mere flourishes, just as when he calls the Byzantine Empire ‘Ionia’ and its inhabitants ‘Danai’ and ‘Pelasgi.’

  † b.  A boast, brag. Obs.

1586.  A. Day, The English Secretary, ii. (1599), 43. All your smooth passage and flourish made of your companie, their reputation, your ciuilitie, small play, my allowance, and your construction vpon the same.

1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), Flourish … a Vaunt, Boast, or Brag.

  6.  An ostentatious waving about of a weapon or anything else held in the hand; a showy movement of the body or limbs.

1601.  Cornwallyes, Ess., xii. Ease and formalitie, are the highest wee reach at, and like seeming Fencers, wee are meeter for a flourish, then defence.

1713.  Steele, Guardian, No. 50, 8 May, ¶ 2. The first time he came to shave me, before he applied his weapon to my chin, he gave me a flourish with it, very like the salutation the price-fighters give the company with theirs, which made me apprehend incision would as certainly ensue.

1737.  H. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. 166–7. Where the Horse is young and fond of running, it would split him, or knock him up (as we say) if the Rider were to make his Flourishes upon his Back like a Rope-dancer.

1840.  F. D. Bennett, Whaling Voy., I. 142. A few of the more exquisite musicians embellish their performance with a flourish of the fingers, rivalling in grace that of Paganini’s bow.

1859.  Dickens, T. Two Cities, I. v. The three customers pulled off their hats to Madame Defarge, with three flourishes.

  fig.  1777.  A. Hamilton, Wks. (1886), VII. 510. Their flourishes in the Jerseys, I believe, cannot have cost them less than six or seven hundred men.

  b.  esp. A graceful brandishing of the weapon by way of salute or display at the beginning of a fencing match. † Hence fig. a prolusion, ornamental preamble; a piece of compliment or display preliminary to serious business or discussion. (Cf. 7 c.)

1552.  Huloet, Florysh, proludium.

1571.  Golding, Calvin on Ps. xviii. 44. That was but a florish of the sovereintie promised to Christ.

1593.  R. Harvey, Philad., 2. We compare not Brutus with Romulus, no more then we compare your Chronicle now with this that shall write one 200. or 300. yeares heereafter: but this is your florish, to no other purpose, then to shew reading, where it doth no good, and may do some little hurt to a young Reader.

a. 1626.  Bacon, Ess., Fame (Arb.), 579. This is a flourish: There follow excellent Parables; As that, she gathereth strength in going; That she goeth upon the ground, and yet hideth her head in the Clouds.

1826.  Scott, Woodst., xxviii. Ere they had done more than salute each other, with the usual courteous flourish of their weapons, Doctor Rochecliffe again stood between them.

  7.  Music. a. A fanfare (of horns, trumpets, etc.), esp. to announce the approach of a person of distinction.

1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., IV. iv. 148.

1609.  Heywood, Lucrece, V. i. A great shout and a florish with drums and Trumpets.

1712.  Philips, Distressed Mother, IV. i. A flourish of trumpets.

1788.  Clara Reeve, Exiles, II. 127. The herald of the Rose then advanced, with two trumpeters, and the banner of the order; they blew a flourish, and the herald gave his challenge.

1813.  Ann. Reg., 52. The Duke of York gave the toast; it was announced from the head of the table by a flourish of trumpets, and then, with the spirit of the antique time of Royal feasting, was returned from the foot by another flourish.

1814.  Scott, Wav., xlv. When Waverley reached that part of the column which was filled by the clan of Mac-Ivor, they halted, formed, and received him with a triumphant flourish upon the bagpipes, and a loud shout of the men.

1868.  Regul. & Ord. Army, ¶ 58. In corps not having a band, the bugles or trumpets will sound the flourish.

  fig.  1884.  J. A. H. Murray, 13th Presid. Addr., in Trans. Philol. Soc., 516. Friends, who, on discovering an instance of a word ten, twenty, or fifty years earlier, send it with a flourish of trumpets to Notes and Queries, as if it were something marvellous that the Dictionary had missed it.

  b.  A florid passage; a florid style of composition; a decorative addition introduced by player or singer. Also, ‘the execution of profuse but unmeaning ornamentation in music’ (Stainer and Barrett).

1646.  Crashaw, Poems, Musick’s Duell, 137.

1724.  Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1733), I. Preface, p. v. Such are not judges of the fine flowrishes of new musick imported from Italy and elsewhere, yet will listen with pleasure to tunes they know, and can join with in the chorus.

1823.  Crabb, Technol. Dict., Flourish (Mus.) a prelude, or preparatory air, without any settled rule: also the decorative notes which a singer, or instrumental performer, adds sometimes to a passage.

  c.  A short extemporized sequence of notes sounded as a prelude at the beginning of a piece of music. Cf. 6 b.

1706.  A. Bedford, Temple Mus., ix. 191. The Singers stood opposite to each other and sang in their Turns, so perhaps they might sing in the same Tune, but each Side might begin with a different Flourish, to create the greater Variety.

1876.  Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, Flourish.… The preparatory cadenza for ‘tuning the voice,’ in which singers formerly indulged just before commencing their song.

  transf.  1850.  W. Irving, Knickerb., IV. ii. 117. He preluded his address by a sonorous blast of the nose; a preliminary flourish much in vogue among public orators.