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brag
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
brag
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
about
▪ A drop-out rate of 17.2% is nothing to brag about, although Fernandez did.
▪ Corporations no longer brag about their generous benefits; instead they take pride in offering stingy benefits and low wages.
▪ We were respectable Home Counties middle class, but nothing special, nothing to brag about.
▪ And it was obviously not something she bragged about, which was admirable of her.
▪ They bragged about their exploits in Gawthorpe and this, naturally, upset the villagers.
▪ The automatic transmission, an $ 815 stand-alone option in the tester, was nothing to brag about for smoothness of operation.
▪ In short, they have nothing to brag about.
▪ It is a rare work-inhibited student who can not brag about certain accomplishments.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ I wish she'd stop bragging about how rich her parents are.
▪ Kevin used to brag that he'd had dozens of girlfriends.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And within the field, status comes from puffing up racial bragging points.
▪ He bragged that he had made it with all five of the New York Dolls when he was sixteen.
▪ I may be bragging about myself though.
▪ Immodest, she will brag about pressures she faces.
▪ In short, they have nothing to brag about.
▪ We have no company to brag on any more.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Brag

Brag \Brag\, v. t. To boast of. [Obs.]
--Shak.

Brag

Brag \Brag\, n.

  1. A boast or boasting; bragging; ostentatious pretense or self glorification.

    C[ae]sar . . . made not here his brag Of ``came,'' and ``saw,'' and ``overcame.''
    --Shak.

  2. The thing which is boasted of.

    Beauty is Nature's brag.
    --Milton.

  3. A game at cards similar to bluff.
    --Chesterfield.

Brag

Brag \Brag\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Bragged; p. pr. & vb. n. Bragging.] [OE. braggen to resound, blow, boast (cf. F. braguer to lead a merry life, flaunt, boast, OF. brague merriment), from Icel. braka to creak, brak noise, fr. the same root as E. break; properly then, to make a noise, boast. ? 95.] To talk about one's self, or things pertaining to one's self, in a manner intended to excite admiration, envy, or wonder; to talk boastfully; to boast; -- often followed by of; as, to brag of one's exploits, courage, or money, or of the great things one intends to do.

Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, Brags of his substance, not of ornament.
--Shak.

Syn: To swagger; boast; vapor; bluster; vaunt; flourish; talk big.

Brag

Brag \Brag\, a. [See Brag, v. i.] Brisk; full of spirits; boasting; pretentious; conceited.

A brag young fellow.
--B. Jonson.

Brag

Brag \Brag\, adv. Proudly; boastfully. [Obs.]
--Fuller.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
brag

late 14c., "pomp; arrogance, pride;" see brag (v.); the exact relationship of the forms is uncertain. Meaning "that which is boasted" is from 1530s. As a once-popular poker-like card game, from 1734.

brag

mid-14c., braggen "to make a loud sound," also "to talk boastfully," of obscure origin, perhaps related to bray of a trumpet, or related to the Middle English adjective brag "ostentatious, proud; spirited, brave" (early 14c.), which probably is from Celtic. Other sources suggest Old Norse bragr "the best, the toast (of anything)," also "poetry." Also see braggart for another possibility. Related: Bragged; bragging.

Wiktionary
brag
  1. 1 First-rate. 2 (lb en archaic) Brisk; full of spirits; boasting; pretentious; conceited. adv. (lb en obsolete) proudly; boastfully n. 1 A boast or boasting; bragging; ostentatious pretence or self-glorification. 2 The thing which is boasted of. 3 (lb en by ellipsis) The card game three card brag. v

  2. 1 (lb en intransitive) To boast; to talk with excessive pride about what one has, can do, or has done. 2 (lb en transitive) To boast of.

WordNet
brag
  1. adj. exceptionally good; "a boss hand at carpentry"; "his brag cornfield" [syn: boss]

  2. [also: bragging, bragged]

brag
  1. n. an instance of boastful talk; "his brag is worse than his fight"; "whenever he won we were exposed to his gasconade" [syn: bragging, crow, crowing, vaporing, line-shooting, gasconade]

  2. v. show off [syn: boast, tout, swash, shoot a line, gas, blow, bluster, vaunt, gasconade]

  3. [also: bragging, bragged]

Wikipedia
Brag

Brag or BRAG may refer to:

  • to boast
  • Brag (folklore), a creature from the folklore of Northumbria, England
  • Three card brag, a British card game
  • Bicycle Ride Across Georgia
  • Brag, a character in The Trigan Empire, a science fiction comic series
  • Eva Brag, Swedish writer
Brag (folklore)

A brag is a creature from the folklore of Northumberland and Durham that usually takes the form of a horse or donkey. It is fond of tricking unwary wayfarers into riding on its back before throwing the rider into a pool of water or bush, afterward running off laughing, much like the Bäckahästen (brook horse) or kelpie. The brag is also said to have appeared as a calf with a neckerchief, a naked headless man, and even four men carrying a sheet. Some well-known brags are said to live at Picktree (where it was called the Picktree Brag) and Humbleknowe.

There is also another similar shape-shifter in Northumbrian folklore, the Hedley Kow.

Usage examples of "brag".

Bernard, and Return to Parma--A Letter from Hensiette--My Despair De La Haye Becomes Attached to Me--Unpleasant Adventure with an Actress and Its Consequences--I Turn a Thorough Bigot--Bavois--I Mystify a Bragging Officer.

Walton had been known to brag that her house was the best furnished in the street, and on this she was right When in 1916 and at the age of seventeen she had married Alee, he was just out of his time in the shipyard and owing to the war earning good money.

I am utterly sick and tired of the eternal brag and bombast around me.

The way-stew was nothing to brag about, but the vapors did wonders to clear her head, so that she felt reasonably alert when she helped herself to the last of the cauf and began to repack her hasty camp.

Well, in case you reside outside the land of purebred dogdom, let me welcome you to the shameless kingdom of brag, brag, brag.

Republican gubernatorial primary in 1994, one candidate bragged in a TV ad that as attorney general he had helped kill Spenkelink.

His trainer was satisfied, so far Micky was ahead on every round, and he began to think that Micky would take the gyppo out in five rounds as he had bragged.

But she has bragged to me of several single conquests, including Van Deef.

A Celt named Hool bragged that his second arrow at the Roman soldiers was notched and drawn before the first had even hit home.

Was he ever going to outlive the minor notoriety he had gained with Dave since his unfortunate episode of laddish bragging?

Veale slurred his words all over the road and bragged to Serge what a successful and important orthodontist he was.

The New Administration Back in Elmwood Springs, Dorothy made it a policy never to discuss politics on her show or certainly never to brag about the important people she knew but she was so happy for Betty Raye she just had to say something.

Charles Rembar, bragged in his book The End of Obscenity that he gave the activist judges on the Supreme Court the rationale to reverse convictions under the laws passed by legislatures, until they were no longer enforceable against obscenity.

San Reve, took that pertinacious beauty into his confidence, lying wherever it was inconvenient to tell the truth, and bragging always like a Cheyenne.

To others it is only an opportunity to catch up on fifteen weeks of lost sleep, to scarf down piles of good scran sink a few dozen pints, brag to their mates and thus avoid questioning themselves about why they feel so alienated from friends and family.