flaunt

verb

1. (archaic, intransitive)To wave or flutter smartly in the wind.

   “The black, rich soil had fed itself with the decay of a long period of time; such as fallen leaves, the petals of flowers, and the stalks and seed-vessels of vagrant and lawless plants, more useful after their death than ever while flaunting in the sun.”

   “Flaunt away, flags of all nations! be duly lower’d at sunset!”

   “At the corner of the bridge, too, I saw one of the common contrasts of that grotesque time—a sheet of paper flaunting against a thicket of the Red Weed, transfixed by a stick that kept it in place.”

   “The house came into sight, above the cedar grove beyond whose black interstices an apple orchard flaunted in the sunny afternoon.”

2. (transitive)To parade, display with ostentation.

   “Near-synonym: vaunt”

   “She’s always flaunting her designer clothes.”

   “He pierced with his sombre detachment the plate-glass of ironmongers and saddlers, while Strether flaunted an affinity with the dealers in stamped letter-paper and in smart neckties.”

   “Never one to miss an opportunity to flaunt his wealth, Khashoggi let his yacht be used for the 1983 Bond film Never Say Never Again.”

   “Israel has shown – flaunted even – the Mossad’s ability to operate with near impunity in Iran in the past.”

3. (archaic, intransitive, literary)To show off, as with flashy clothing.

   “You Sot, ſays ſhe, you loyter about Alehouſes and Taverns, ſpend your Time at Billiards, Nine-pins or Puppet-ſhovvs, or flaunt about the Streets in your nevv gilt Chariot, never minding me nor your numerous Family; […]”

   “One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade.”

   “[T]he younger belles had begun to flaunt in the French fashions of flimsy muslins, shortwaisted— narrow-skirted.”

   “[…] Mrs. Wix seemed to flaunt there in her finery.”

4. (proscribed)To flout.

   “By that late date, however, the golden age of the lurid paperback book was pretty much over, and the sort of punishment meted out to Aday and Maxey for flaunting the sexual mores of a McCarthyite culture would soon be a thing of the past.”

   “Wheeler said companies already are flaunting the rules by offering free or sponsored data services for some products.”

noun

1. (obsolete)Anything displayed for show.

   “Should I , in these my borrow'd flaunts, behold The sternness of his presence?”