flourish

ENEnglish
//ˈflʌɹ.ɪʃ//(Boston, Mid Atlantic)

Verb Conjugation Tables & Inflections

Key Verb Forms & Inflections
Third-person singular (he/she/it):flourishes
Present Participle (-ing):flourishing
Past Participle:flourished
Simple Past:flourished

Definitions & Usage

verb
#1

(intransitive) To thrive or grow well.

Example: The barley flourished in the warm weather.
verb
#2

(intransitive) To prosper or fare well.

Example: The town flourished with the coming of the railway.
Example: The cooperation flourished as the customers rushed in the business.
verb
#3

(intransitive) To be in a period of greatest influence.

Example: His writing flourished before the war.
verb
#4

(transitive) To develop; to make thrive; to expand.

verb
#5

(transitive) To make bold, sweeping movements with.

Example: They flourished the banner as they stormed the palace.
Example: The squirrel flourished its fluffy tail about as an alarm signal after its narrow escape from the cat.
verb
#6

(intransitive) To make bold and sweeping, fanciful, or wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with fantastic and irregular motion.

verb
#7

(intransitive) To use florid language; to indulge in rhetorical figures and lofty expressions.

verb
#8

(intransitive) To make ornamental strokes with the pen; to write graceful, decorative figures.

verb
#9

(transitive) To adorn with beautiful figures or rhetoric; to ornament with anything showy; to embellish.

verb
#10

(intransitive) To execute an irregular or fanciful strain of music, by way of ornament or prelude.

verb
#11

(intransitive, obsolete) To boast; to vaunt; to brag.

verb
#12

(transitive, archaic) To brandish (a weapon).

verb
#13

(intransitive) 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.

Example: John Smith (flourished 1425-1432) was...
noun
#14

A dramatic gesture such as the waving of a flag.

Example: With many flourishes of the captured banner, they marched down the avenue.
noun
#15

An ornamentation.

Example: His signature ended with a flourish.
noun
#16

(music) A ceremonious passage such as a fanfare.

Example: The trumpets blew a flourish as they entered the church.
noun
#17

(architecture) A decorative embellishment on a building.

Notable Literary & Historical Quotes

'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 1:

Bad men as frequently prosper and flourish, and that by the means of their wickedness.

1795, Robert Nelson, A Companion for the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England:

One hall called Civil Law Hall or School, flouriſhed about this time (though in its buildings decayed) by the care of the learned and judicious Dr. Will. Warham Principal or Moderator thereof […]

1792, Anthony à Wood, The History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford: In Two Books, volume 1, Oxford: John Gutch, →OCLC, page 661:

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