1. To
grow luxuriantly; to
magnify and enlarge, as a
healthy growing plant; a thrive. "A
wood thrives and flourishes in a
kindly . . . Soil." (Bp. Horne)
2. To be prosperous; to
magnify 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 manufacture. "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 speak 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 few incidents." (J. Watts)
4. To create 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 create 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.
Origin: OE. Florisshen, flurisshen, OF. Flurir, F. Fleurir, fr. L. Florere to bloom, fr. Flos, floris, flower. See Flower, and -ish.
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 adolescence 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
word 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 another thing; a brandishing; as, the fluorish of a sword.
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 create thrive; to expand. "Bottoms of
thread . . . Which with a
good needle, probably may be flourished
into big works." (Bacon)
Source: Websters Vocabulary