noun · verb · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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/ˌfænfɛɹəˈneɪd/
/ˌfænfɛɹəˈnɑːd/
1
noun
Meaning 1
Empty, self-assertive boasting; an instance of such behaviour.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Examples
1828, Walter Scott, The Surgeon’s Daughter in Chronicles of the Canongate, Boston: Samuel H. Parker, p. 78, [he] was an enemy to every thing that approached to fanfaronade, and knew enough of the world to lay it down as a sort of general rule, that he who talks a great deal of fighting is seldom a brave soldier
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
Loud, showy display, celebration or proclamation (of something), sometimes involving the playing of trumpets or other musical instruments.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Examples
1877, Frances Hodgson Burnett, That Lass o’ Lowrie’s, London: F. Warne, p. 55, he dined in public—a fanfaronade of trumpets proclaiming his down-sitting and his up-rising
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: blare, blast, fanfare, ostentation
Antonyms: none provided
3
verb
Meaning 3
To engage in empty, self-assertive boasting.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
Examples
1990, E. Grady Jolly, United States Circuit Judge, opinion regarding the matter of Clark Pipe & Supply Co., cited in Robert L. Jordan and William D. Warren, Bankruptcy, Westbury, NY: The Foundation Press, fourth edition, 1995, pp. 653-654, Given the agreement he was working under, his testimony was hardly more than fanfaronading about the power that the agreement afforded him over the financial affairs of Clark.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
verb
Meaning 4
To proclaim loudly; to promote enthusiastically.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: ambitransitive
Examples
1892, Robert Brown, The Story of Africa and Its Explorers, London: Cassell, Volume 1, Chapter 11, p. 208, Nowadays a returning traveller with half his merits is [...] fanfaronaded every step of his homeward journey. The telegraph tells how he has arrived here, the special correspondent what he has to say there, until by the time he lands at Liverpool or Plymouth [...] the interviewer and the illustrated journals have taken the heart out of any tale he may have to tell.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: trumpet
Antonyms: none provided
5
verb
Meaning 5
To make a noisy, showy display or celebration; to play a fanfare.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
From French fanfaronnade (“bragging, boasting”); other senses influenced by fanfare.
