U.S. [Imitative.]
1. intr. To make an ostentatious display; to show off.
a. 1848. Maj. Jones’s Courtship, 111 (Bartlett). Cousin Pete was thar splurgin about in the biggest, with his dandy-cut trowsers and big whiskers.
1888. C. D. Warner, Their Pilgr., iv. 114. People who … buy or build expensive villas, splurge out for a year or two, then fail…, and disappear.
2. To splash heavily. (Cf. SPLODGE v. 1.)
1887. T. Stevens, Around World on Bicycle, I. viii. 189. I don my gossamers as soon as the rain slacks up a little, and splurge ahead through the mud.
Hence Splurging ppl. a.
1883. L. Oliphant, Altiora Peto, 90. The … American heiress and her friend—two of my splurging young countrywomen.
