Flourish | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Floŭr'ish, v. i.

verbintransitive

(flŭr'ish), v. i. [imp. & p. p. FLOURISHED (flŭr'isht); p. pr. & vb. n. FLOURISHING.] [O. Eng. fluriche, florishe, O. Fr. flurir, florir, N. Fr. fleurir, Pr. & O. It. florir, N. It. fiorire, Sp. & Pg. florecer, Lat. florescere, v. inchoative from florere, to bloom, from flos, flower.]

Sense 1. To grow luxuriantly; to increase and enlarge, as a healthy growing plant; to thrive.

A tree thrives and flourishes in a kindly and well-watered soil. Horne.

Sense 2. To be prosperous; to increase in wealth, honor, comfort, happiness, or whatever is desirable; to be increased with good things or qualities; to grow and augment; to thrive. “His fortune yet may flourish.” Shak.

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.

Sense 3. To use florid language; to make a display of figures and lofty expressions; to be copious and flowery.

They dilate and flourish long on little incidents. Watts.

Sense 4. To make bold and sweeping, fanciful, or wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, or the like; to play with fantastic and irregular motion.

Sense 5. To make ornamental strokes with the pen; to write graceful, decorative figures.

Sense 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.

Sense 7. To boast; to vaunt; to brag. Pope.

Floŭr'ish, v. t.

verbtransitive

(flŭr'ish), v. t. 1. To cause to thrive; to develop; to expand. Bacon. 2. To adorn with flowers or beautiful figures, either natural or artificial; to ornament with any thing showy; to embellish. Fenton. The day-book and inventory-book shall be flourished. Walsh. 3. 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; to mark with flourishes. Sith that the justice of your title to him Doth flourish the deceit. Shak. 4. 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.

Floŭr'ish, n.

noun

(flŭr'ish), n. 1. A flourishing condition; prosperity; vigor. [Obs.]

Rome ... was in that flourish that Saint Austin desired to see her in. Howell.

Sense 2. Decoration; ornament; beauty; showy splendor.

The flourish of his sober youth Was the pride of naked truth. Crashaw.

Sense 3. Something made or performed in a fanciful, wanton, or vaunting manner, by way of ostentation, to excite admiration, and the like; ostentatious embellishment; ambitious copiousness, or amplification; parade of words and figures; show; as, a flourish of rhetoric; a flourish of wit.

He lards with flourishes his long harangue. Dryden. Needs not the painted flourish of your praise. Shak.

Sense 4. A fanciful stroke of the pen or graver; a merely decorative figure.

The neat characters and flourishes of a Bible curiously printed. Boyle.

Sense 5. A fantastic or decorative musical passage; a strain of triumph or bravado, not forming part of a regular musical composition.

A flourish, trumpets; strike alarum, drums. Shak.

Sense 6. The waving of a weapon or other thing; a brandishing; as, the flourish of a sword.