Definition of "brandish"

brandish

/ˈbɹændɪʃ/

verb
third-person singular simple present brandishes, present participle brandishing, simple past and past participle brandished
1. (transitive) To move or swing a weapon back and forth, particularly if demonstrating anger, threat or skill.
  Quotations
  the quivering lance which he brandished bright
  1819, Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay
  Back, he spurred like a madman, shouting a curse to the sky, / With the white road smoking behind him, and his rapier brandished high! / Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat; […]
  1906 August, Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”, in Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, part 2, stanza IX, page 53
2. (transitive) To bear something with ostentatious show.
  Quotations
  Long, however, the young ſpark did not remain, before, giving it [his penis] two or three ſhakes, by way of brandiſhing it, he threw himſelf upon her, […]
  1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], page 66
  It sets the stage for cutting corners in our principles just so we can brandish a perceived badge of stature.
  2011, Jejomar C. Binay, Binay: Blame corruption on modern consumerism, Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation
noun
plural brandishes
1. The act of flourishing or waving.