Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Flourish?

\Flour"ish\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Flourished}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Flourishing}.] [OE. florisshen, flurisshen, OF. flurir, F. fleurir, fr. L. florere to bloom, fr. flos, floris, flower. See {Flower}, and {-ish}.] 1. To grow luxuriantly; to increase and enlarge, as a healthy growing plant; a thrive. 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. --Pope.
\Flour"ish\, v. t. 1. To adorn with flowers orbeautiful figures, either natural or artificial; to ornament with anything showy; to embellish. [Obs.] --Fenton. 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. [Obs.] 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. [Obs.] Bottoms of thread . . . which with a good needle, perhaps may be flourished into large works. --Bacon.
\Flour"ish\, n.; pl. {Flourishes}. 1. A flourishing condition; prosperity; vigor. [Archaic] 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.