Flourish

Definition of Flourish

Flour´ish

v. i.	1.	To grow luxuriantly; to increase and enlarge, as a healthy growing plant; a thrive. [imp. & p. p. Flourished ; p. pr. & vb. n. Flourishing.] A tree thrives and flourishes in a kindly . . . soil. - Bp. Horne.
	2.	To be prosperous; to increase in wealth, honor, comfort, happiness, or whatever is desirable; to thrive; to be prominent and influental; specifically, of authors, painters, etc., to be in a state of activity or production. When all the workers of iniquity do flourish. - Ps. xcii 7 Bad men as frequently prosper and flourish, and that by the means of their wickedness. - Nelson. We say Of those that held their heads above the crowd, They flourished then or then. - Tennyson.
	3.	To use florid language; to indulge in rhetorical figures and lofty expressions; to be flowery. They dilate . . . and flourish long on little incidents. - J. Watts.
	4.	To make bold and sweeping, fanciful, or wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with fantastic and irregular motion. Impetuous spread The stream, and smoking flourished o'er his head. - Pope.
	5.	To make ornamental strokes with the pen; to write graceful, decorative figures.
	6.	To execute an irregular or fanciful strain of music, by way of ornament or prelude. Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus? - Shak.
	7.	To boast; to vaunt; to brag.
v. t.	1.	To adorn with flowers orbeautiful figures, either natural or artificial; to ornament with anything showy; to embellish.
	2.	To embellish with the flowers of diction; to adorn with rhetorical figures; to grace with ostentatious eloquence; to set off with a parade of words. Sith that the justice of your title to him Doth flourish the deceit. - Shak.
	3.	To move in bold or irregular figures; to swing about in circles or vibrations by way of show or triumph; to brandish. And flourishes his blade in spite of me. - Shak.
	4.	To develop; to make thrive; to expand. Bottoms of thread . . . which with a good needle, perhaps may be flourished into large works. - Bacon.
n.	1.	A flourishing condition; prosperity; vigor. The Roman monarchy, in her highest flourish, never had the like. - Howell.
	2.	Decoration; ornament; beauty. The flourish of his sober youth Was the pride of naked truth. - Crashaw.
	3.	Something made or performed in a fanciful, wanton, or vaunting manner, by way of ostentation, to excite admiration, etc.; ostentatious embellishment; ambitious copiousness or amplification; parade of words and figures; show; as, a flourish of rhetoric or of wit. He lards with flourishes his long harangue. - Dryden.
	4.	A fanciful stroke of the pen or graver; a merely decorative figure. The neat characters and flourishes of a Bible curiously printed. - Boyle.
	5.	A fantastic or decorative musical passage; a strain of triumph or bravado, not forming part of a regular musical composition; a cal; a fanfare. A flourish, trumpets! strike alarum, drums! - Shak.
	6.	The waving of a weapon or other thing; a brandishing; as, the flourish of a sword.

Related Words

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Flossy
Flota
Flotage
Flotant
Flotation
Flotation process
Flote
Flotery
Flotilla
Flotsam
Flotten
Flounce
Flounder
Flour
Flour bolt
Flour box
Flour dredge
Flour dresser
Flour mill
Floured
-Flourish-
Flourisher
Flourishingly
Floury
Flout
Flouter
Floutingly
Flow
Flowage
Flowen
Flower
Flower bed
Flower beetle
Flower bird
Flower bud
Flower clock
Flower head
Flower pecker
Flower piece
Flower stalk
Flower State

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