ostentation (ostent ash on)

[= F. osten tation = Sp. ostent a cion = Pg. ostent ação = It. ostent azione, Of every new framd fashion This is the place to make moste ostentation , To shew the bravery of our gay attire. Times Whistle (E. E. T. S.), p. 15. You are come A market-maid to Rome; and have prevented The ostentation of our love, which, left unshown, Is often left unloved. Shak ., A. and C., iii. 6. 52. 2t. A sight or spectacle; show; ceremony. The king would have me present the prince , sweet chuck, with some delightful ostentation, or show, or pa geant, or antique, or L. L. 1. 118. 3. Ambitious display; pretentious parade; vain show; display intended to excite admiration or applause. They which doe not good but for vaine glorie and osten tation shall be damned. Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 256. Open ostentation and loud vainglory is more tolerable than this obliquity. Sir T. Browne, Christ. Mor., i. 34. A Third Fault in his Sentiments is an unnece ary 08 tentation of Learning. Add is on, Spectator, No. 297. The style is agreeable, clear, and manly, and, when it rises into eloquence, rises without effort or ostentation . Macaulay , Moore's Byron. =Syn. 3. Show, Display, Parade, Ostentation, flourish, dash. Show is the most general word for the purposed exhibition of that which might have been kept private; as such, it includes the others. Ostentation is always bad; the others may be good in certain relations. Parade and display are more suggestive of the simple act, ostentation of the spirit: as, to make a parade of one's learning; it was ostentation that led the Pharisees to make a parade or display of their charities and prayers. Parade is a matter of vanity; ostentation, of vanity, pride, or ambition. Plain without pomp, and rich without a show. Dryden, Flower and Leaf, 1. 187. To his [Laud's] love of this clerical display may be traced one reason for the strong opposition he met with. Fairholt , Costume, I. 324. He loves to make parade of pain, That with his piping he may gain The praise that comes to constancy. Tennyson, In Memoriam, xxi. Nor did her alms from ostentation fall, Or proud desire of praise; the soul gave all. Dryden, Eleonora, 1. 28. IMG:content-1904.png:[blocks in formation] Frederic aspired to the style of royalty. Ostentatious and profuse, negligent of his true interests and of his high duties, he added nothing to the real weight of the state which he governed. Macaulay, Frederic the Great. True courage is not ostentatious ; men who wish to inspire terror seem thereby to confe themselves cowards. Emerson , Courage. 3. Showy; gaudy; intended for vain display: as, ostentatious ornaments. Whoever wishes to attain an English style familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Add is on. Johnson, Add is on. = Syn. Dashing, flaunting. See ostentation . ostentatiously (os-ten-tā'shus-li), adv . In an ostentatious manner; with great display; boastfully; in a way intended to attract notice. James [II.], with great folly, identified himself ostent a tiously with the enemies of his country. Lecky , Eng. in 18th Cent., i.