brandish

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English[edit]

WOTD – 25 January 2007

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English braundischen, from Old French brandiss-, stem of brandir (“to flourish a sword”), from Frankish *brandijan, from Frankish *brand (“firebrand; sword”), from Proto-Germanic *brandaz (“fire; flame; sword”), whence Old English brand (“firebrand; torch”); equivalent to brand +‎ -ish. More at brand.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈbɹændɪʃ/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (AU):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ændɪʃ

Verb[edit]

brandish (third-person singular simple present brandishes, present participle brandishing, simple past and past participle brandished)

  1. (transitive) To move or swing a weapon back and forth, particularly if demonstrating anger, threat or skill.
    He brandished his sword at the pirates.
    • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 96, column 1:
      Hvng be yͤ heauens vvith black, yield day to night; / Comets importing change of Times and States, / Brandiſh your cryſtall Treſſes in the Skie, / And vvith them ſcourge the bad reuolting Stars, / That haue conſented vnto Henries Death: / King Henry the Fift, too famous to liue long, / England ne're loſt a King of ſo much vvorth.
    • 1819, Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay:
      the quivering lance which he brandished bright
    • 1906 August, Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”, in Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 2, stanza IX, page 53:
      Back, he spurred like a madman, shouting a curse to the sky, / With the white road smoking behind him, and his rapier brandished high! / Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat; […]
  2. (transitive) To bear something with ostentatious show.
    to brandish syllogisms
    • 1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC, page 66:
      Long, however, the young ſpark did not remain, before, giving it [his penis] two or three ſhakes, by way of brandiſhing it, he threw himſelf upon her, […]
    • 2011, Jejomar C. Binay, Binay: Blame corruption on modern consumerism, Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation, [1]:
      It sets the stage for cutting corners in our principles just so we can brandish a perceived badge of stature.

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Noun[edit]

brandish (plural brandishes)

  1. The act of flourishing or waving.

Synonyms[edit]

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