Definition: bombast

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Source: WordNet (r) 1.7 

bombast
     n : pompous or pretentious talk or writing [syn: fustian, rant,
          claptrap, blah]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) 

Bombast \Bom"bast\, a.
   High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent;
   bombastic.

         [He] evades them with a bombast circumstance, Horribly
         stuffed with epithets of war.            --Shak.

         Nor a tall metaphor in bombast way.      --Cowley.
Bombast \Bom"bast\ (b[o^]m"b[.a]st or b[u^]m"b[.a]st; 277), n.
   [OF. bombace cotton, LL. bombax cotton, bombasium a doublet
   of cotton; hence, padding, wadding, fustian. See
   Bombazine.]
   1. Originally, cotton, or cotton wool. [Obs.]

            A candle with a wick of bombast.      --Lupton.

   2. Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing
      for garments; stuffing; padding. [Obs.]

            How now, my sweet creature of bombast! --Shak.

            Doublets, stuffed with four, five, or six pounds of
            bombast at least.                     --Stubbes.

   3. Fig.: High-sounding words; an inflated style; language
      above the dignity of the occasion; fustian.

            Yet noisy bombast carefully avoid.    --Dryden.
Bombast \Bom*bast"\ (b[o^]m*b[.a]st" or b[u^]m*b[.a]st"), v. t.
   To swell or fill out; to pad; to inflate. [Obs.]

         Not bombasted with words vain ticklish ears to feed.
                                                  --Drayton.