Definition of "rodomontade"

[…] the Gasconads of France, Rodomontads of Spain, Fanfaronads of Italy, and Bragadochio brags of all other countries, could no more astonish his invincible heart, then would the cheeping of a mouse a bear robbed of her whelps.

1652, Thomas Urquhart, “Εκσκυβαλαυρον (The Jewel)”, in The Works of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty, Knight‎, Edinburgh: Thomas Maitland Dundrennan, published 1834, page 217

Indeed, there is much Reaſon to imagine, that there was not the leaſt Truth in what Mr. Weſtern affirmed, eſpecially as he laid the Scene of thoſe Impurities at the Univerſity, where Mr. Allworthy had never been. In fact, the good Squire was a little too apt to indulge that Kind of Pleaſantry which is generally called Rodomontade; but which may, with as much Propriety, be expreſſed by a much ſhorter Word;

1749, Henry Fielding, “The Narrow Escape of Molly Seagrim, with Some Observations for Which We Have Been Forced to Dive Pretty Deep into Nature”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], book IV, pages 79–80

Many of her ladyship’s letters were the most whimsical rhodomontades that ever blue-stocking penned.

1844 August, Fitz-Boodle [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], “Barry Provides for His Family and Attains the Height of His Luck”, in “The Luck of Barry Lyndon; A Romance of the Last Century”, in Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country, volume XXX, number CLXXVI, London: G[eorge] W[illiam] Nickisson, page 235, column 1

He talks of her abroad as a stern and rigid master dealing with a naughty slave, though, by the look that accompanies his rhodomontade, I am convinced that at home he is the very model of "managed men."

1855, Sir Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, Dover, published 1963, page 67

[…] Euripides accuses Æschylus of being ‘pomp-bundle-worded,’ which I suppose means bombastic and given to rodomontade […]

1873–1884 (date written), Samuel Butler, chapter XLVI, in R[ichard] A[lexander] Streatfeild, editor, The Way of All Flesh, London: Grant Richards, published 1903, page 207

Bragging was the vice that was Eichmann's undoing. It was sheer rodomontade when he told his men during the last days of the war: “I will jump into my grave laughing, because the fact that I have the death of five million Jews [or “enemies of the Reich,” as he always claimed to have said][sic] on my conscience gives me extraordinary satisfaction.”

1964, Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, New York, Viking Press, page 46