Dictionary

bloviate en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˈbloʊ.viˌeɪt/

Etymology

1845, US, Ohio, from blow (“speak idly, boast”) + -i- + -ate, by analogy with deviate.

Meanings

1. (US, intransitive) To speak or discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner.
   • Peter P. Low, Esq., will with open throat…bloviate about the farmers being taxed upon the full value of their farms, while bankers are released from taxation. 1845 October 14, Huron Reflector, Norwalk, Ohio:
   • His passion when bloviating was furious and terrible to look upon; but there was nothing to it more than sound and pretense. 1887, James O'Meara, The Vigilance Committee of '56:
   • And in turn, more complex ones: could his son have become Boris Johnson, bloviating commentator and one-time prime minister of Britain, without one [a nanny]? 2023 April 29, Lou Stoppard, “Inside the world of the elite nanny”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC:
   • “The cost of appearing with this bloviating ignoramus is obvious, it seems to me,” he said on “This Week,” the ABC News program. 2012 May 31, Clyde Haberman, quoting George F. Will, “Trying to Solve the Great Trump Mystery”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 25 Jun 2024:

Forms

Deriveds

bloviator · bloviatingly · bloviatory · bloviatrix · bloviative · bloviation

Relateds

blowhard · windbag

Translations (6)

it concionare (to speak or discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner) · nl oreren (to speak or discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner) · ru почесать язы́к (to speak or discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner) · ro a te lungi (to speak or discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner) · de schwafeln (to speak or discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner) · ro a te lungi cu vorba (to speak or discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner)

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