Definition of "blustering"
blustering
noun
countable and uncountable, plural blusterings
Swaggering; braggartry; noisy pretension.
Quotations
Boasting and blustering are as objectionable among nations as among individuals, and the public men of a great nation owe it to their sense of national self-respect to speak courteously of foreign powers just as a brave and self-respecting man treats all around him courteously.
1906, Theodore Roosevelt, “A Square Deal and the Monroe Doctrine”, in A Square Deal, page 179
In Moscow, where parties are judged by the quantity and quality of Russian officials who attend, the U.S. party was a smashing success. Some attributed it to the popularity of Ambassador Thompson, others felt it was another sign that coexistence is still Soviet policy in spite of Khrushchev’s blustering.
1960 April 18, “Halfway Coexistence”, in Time
Generally, you know, I’m conspiracy-theory-phobic. But in this case, all Amis’s blustering about how he’s ill-treated seems to mask the reality of a completely simpering attitude to our greatest living novelist utterly regardless of the quality of his literary output.
2010 February 26, Emily Hill, “The Pub Bore of British Letters”, in Spiked
adjective
comparative more blustering, superlative most blustering
Engaged in or involving the process of blustering, speaking or protesting loudly.
Quotations
But when we began to renue our old acquaintance, and to shake the handes of discontinued familiaritie, alas, good Gentleman, his mandillion was ouercropped, his witt paunched like his wiues spindle, his art shanked like a lath, his conceit as lank as a shotten herring, and that same blustering eloquence as bleake and wan as the Picture of a forlorne Loouer.
1593, Gabriel Harvey, Pierce’s supererogation, or a New Prayse of the Old Asse
In the old days, such impertinence might have seen Mr Aswani taken directly from the studio to the cells; this time, though, it was the prime minister who paid the price. Rendered a nationwide laughing stock by his blustering performance, he resigned a day later - the first casualty of a new era of Egyptian politics, where ministers’ careers are ended not by presidential decree, or by mass street uprising, but because they themselves feel they have failed.
2011 March 16, Colin Freeman, “Egypt’s revolution: leaders must obey new rules, but protesters still impatient for elections and change”, in The Daily Telegraph
Pompous or arrogant in one's speech or bearing.
Quotations
Hermann Göring was a dominating and blustering host. His unresting ego did not permit him to permit his guests to do what they pleased; he told them how to entertain themselves, and he told them what to think. When he was with them, he took charge of the conversation; when he chose to be funny, they all laughed, and he laughed loudest.
1947, Upton Sinclair, “25, I”, in Presidential Mission
At one time there lived here in Switzerland a blustering fellow — I ... I do not overestimate him — by the name of Johannes Scherr. Through his blustering approach and opinions he spoiled many of the sound ideas he presented to the public.
1991, Rudolf Steiner, Social Issues: Meditative Thinking and the Threefold Social Order
Very windy; (of wind) blowing very strongly, blustery.
Quotations
The southern windDoth play the trumpet to his purposes,And by his hollow whistling in the leavesForetells a tempest and a blustering day.
c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i]