boastful
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
What does boastful mean? Boastful is used to describe someone who is known for boasting—bragging, especially in a way that exaggerates or shows excessive pride about the boaster’s skills, possessions, or accomplishments. Boastful is especially used to describe a person who boasts all the time. It can also be used to describe such claims, as in He made boastful claims about all of the awards he had won. Boastful people most often boast about themselves—their skills, their possessions, or the things that they have accomplished—but a person can also be boastful about someone else. A parent might be boastful about their child’s accomplishments, for example. Example: No one has ever actually seen him perform, but that doesn’t stop him from being boastful about how good he is.
Other Word Forms
- boastfully adverb
- boastfulness noun
- overboastful adjective
- overboastfully adverb
- overboastfulness noun
- unboastful adjective
- unboastfully adverb
- unboastfulness noun
Etymology
Origin of boastful
First recorded in 1275–1325, boastful is from the Middle English word bostful. See boast 1, -ful
Explanation
Someone who is overly proud and arrogant can be described as boastful. Your boastful classmate is always going on and on about his own amazing achievements and incredible successes. It's perfectly okay to brag about yourself sometimes. A boastful person just doesn't know when to stop talking about how great they are, or what amazing possessions they own, or how successful they are. If you hear yourself talking pretentiously about your record collection or the many languages you can speak, you'll know you're being boastful. That's when it's time to stop, ask some questions, and give someone else a chance to shine.
Vocabulary lists containing boastful
ACT Reading Test: Words to Capture Tone, List 3
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Tone and Point of View, List 5
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Enchanted Air
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
At press briefings and public events, the former television host has adopted an at times boastful, mocking tone in describing the offensive.
From Barron's • Mar. 10, 2026
It is the kind of boastful big numbers, mixed with a make-money-not-war philosophy, that has endeared him to his boss, a friend of four decades.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 20, 2025
But then the bravado behind those boastful campaign pledges lost steam this month.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 26, 2025
He is beyond boastful, talking ad nauseum about how he knows more than all the experts in their respective fields.
From Salon • Mar. 29, 2024
“Miss Smith!—message to Miss Smith!—What could she possibly mean!”—And he repeated her words with such assurance of accent, such boastful pretence of amazement, that she could not help replying with quickness,
From "Emma" by Jane Austen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
