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flourish

Pronunciation: /ˈflʌɹ.ɪʃ/

The English word “flourish” has 17 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To thrive or grow well.
  2. To prosper or fare well.
  3. To be in a period of greatest influence.
  4. To develop; to make thrive; to expand.
  5. To make bold, sweeping movements with.
  6. To make bold and sweeping, fanciful, or wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with fantastic and irregular motion.
  7. To use florid language; to indulge in rhetorical figures and lofty expressions.
  8. To make ornamental strokes with the pen; to write graceful, decorative figures.
  9. To adorn with beautiful figures or rhetoric; to ornament with anything showy; to embellish.
  10. To execute an irregular or fanciful strain of music, by way of ornament or prelude.
  11. To boast; to vaunt; to brag.
  12. To brandish (a weapon).
  13. To be known to have been alive at a particular time or in a particular period, where one's birth and death dates are not known; to have been active during a specified period; floruit.

noun

  1. A dramatic gesture such as the waving of a flag.
  2. An ornamentation.
  3. A ceremonious passage such as a fanfare.
  4. A decorative embellishment on a building.

Etymology

From Middle English floryschen, from Old French florir (via the arrhizotonic stem floriss-), from Late Latin flōrīre, from Latin flōrēre, from Latin flōrem (“flower”, noun). Corresponds to flower + -ish.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.