FLOURISHING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Flourishing

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/flˈərɪʃɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Flourish v. t.

1.

To adorn with flowers orbeautiful figures, either natural or artificial; to ornament with anything showy; to embellish. (Obs.)

2.

To embellish with the flowers of diction; to adorn with rhetorical figures; to grace with ostentatious eloquence; to set off with a parade of words. (Obs.) "Sith that the justice of your title to him Doth flourish the deceit."

3.

To move in bold or irregular figures; to swing about in circles or vibrations by way of show or triumph; to brandish. "And flourishes his blade in spite of me."

4.

To develop; to make thrive; to expand. (Obs.) "Bottoms of thread... which with a good needle, perhaps may be flourished into large works."

Flourish v. i. (past & past part. flourished; pres. part. flourishing)

1.

To grow luxuriantly; to increase and enlarge, as a healthy growing plant; a thrive. "A tree thrives and flourishes in a kindly... soil."

2.

To be prosperous; to increase in wealth, honor, comfort, happiness, or whatever is desirable; to thrive; to be prominent and influental; specifically, of authors, painters, etc., to be in a state of activity or production. "When all the workers of iniquity do flourish." "Bad men as frequently prosper and flourish, and that by the means of their wickedness." "We say Of those that held their heads above the crowd, They flourished then or then."

3.

To use florid language; to indulge in rhetorical figures and lofty expressions; to be flowery. "They dilate... and flourish long on little incidents."

4.

To make bold and sweeping, fanciful, or wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with fantastic and irregular motion. "Impetuous spread The stream, and smoking flourished o'er his head."

5.

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

6.

To execute an irregular or fanciful strain of music, by way of ornament or prelude. "Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus?"

7.

To boast; to vaunt; to brag.

See images of 'Flourishing'

Etymology of 'Flourishing'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Flourishing" Quotes from Famous Books

... Gentle Reader" with a most palpable hit: "Great marvel hath it been (and that not unworthily) to diverse worthy wits, that in this our island of Britain, in all rare sciences so greatly abounding, more especially in all kinds of poesie highly flourishing, no poet (though other ways of notable cunning in roundelays) hath hit on the right simple eclogue after this true ancient guise of Theocritus, before this mine attempt. Other Poet travelling in this plain highway ...

— Life And Letters Of John Gay (1685-1732) • Lewis Melville

... purging her unrepublican soil of a set of hollow hearted persons, who occupied the place and enjoyed all the advantages of loyal men. Should she, failing to profit by the experience of the past, again tolerate the introduction of citizens of the United States into her flourishing provinces, when there are so many deserving families anxious to emigrate to her from the Mother Country; then will she merit all the evils which can attach, in a state of warfare, to a people diametrically opposed ...

— The Canadian Brothers - or The Prophecy Fulfilled • John Richardson

... Northumberland, are yet so bound up with the story of the Tyne that no one would ever think of that river without them. Especially is this the case with Jarrow, which "Palmer's" has raised from a small colliery village to a large and flourishing town. In those famous yards, everything that is necessary for the building of the largest ironclad, from the first smelting of the ore until the last rivet is in place, can be done. All Northumbria—Northumbria ...

— Northumberland Yesterday and To-day • Jean F. Terry

... the Frenchman with a mind relieved of a heavy load, and the Yankee rather down in the mouth at the result of his trade. Two or three days afterward, as the importer was passing the Frenchman's store, he observed his sign still up, and every thing apparently as flourishing as ever. He stepped in to see what it all meant. 'Hallo! Mr. S——,' said he, 'I thought you had failed!' 'Failed!' repeated the Frenchman, thrusting his thumbs in the arm-holes of his vest, and sliding his legs apart from counter to counter, till ...

— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, April 1844 - Volume 23, Number 4 • Various

... arrangement, the two friends went out to explore the town. The limits were narrow compared with those of the flourishing city of the present day. Where the Palace and Grand hotels now stand was a sand-hill, and the bay encroached upon the business part of the city far ...

— The Young Miner - or Tom Nelson in California • Horatio Alger, Jr.

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