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Bombast settled softly into English in the mid-late 16th century as a textile term used to refer to cotton or other soft fibrous material used as padding or stuffing (its ultimate source is likely Middle Persian pambak, meaning “cotton”), but within a decade it had extended from literal stuffing to figurative stuffing, referring to speech or writing that is padded with pretentious verbiage. The adjective bombastic, which followed bombast a century later, has been a favorite choice to describe blowhards, boasters, and cockalorums ever since.
Examples of bombast in a Sentence
Charlotte Lytton, Time, 13 May 2025
And the score by experimental group Son Lux is a welcome shift away from orchestral bombast into more nuanced territory.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 29 Apr. 2025
Boom! — but learning the meaning and weight behind all that space-operatic bombast is a key reason Andor works so well.
—Siddhant Adlakha, Vulture, 21 Apr. 2025
The Picture of Dorian Gray review: Sarah Snook stuns in slick reinvention of Oscar Wilde's cautionary tale
The biggest jolts of energy come from Murrow’s push-and-pull meetings with CBS president William F. Paley (played in full bombast mode by Paul Gross).
—EW.com, 4 Apr. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Bombast.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bombast. Accessed 5 Jun. 2025.
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bombast
noun
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