Flourish — Defs

01 v. i. To grow luxuriantly; to increase and enlarge, as a healthy growing plant; a thrive.

imp. & p. p. Flourished; p. pr. & vb. n. 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.” — Bp. Horne.
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.” — Ps. xcii 7

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

“We say Of those that held their heads above the crowd, They flourished then or then.” — Tennyson.
3.
To use florid language; to indulge in rhetorical figures and lofty expressions; to be flowery.
“They dilate . . . and flourish long on little incidents.” — J. Watts.
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.” — Pope.
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?” — Shak.
7.
To boast; to vaunt; to brag.

02 v. t. To adorn with flowers orbeautiful figures, either natural or artificial; to ornament with anything showy; to embellish.

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.” — Shak.
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.” — Shak.
4.
To develop; to make thrive; to expand.[Obs.]
“Bottoms of thread . . . which with a good needle, perhaps may be flourished into large works.” — Bacon.

03 n. A flourishing condition; prosperity; vigor.

pl. Flourishes

1.
A flourishing condition; prosperity; vigor.[Archaic]
“The Roman monarchy, in her highest flourish, never had the like.” — Howell.
2.
Decoration; ornament; beauty.
“The flourish of his sober youth Was the pride of naked truth.” — Crashaw.
3.
Something made or performed in a fanciful, wanton, or vaunting manner, by way of ostentation, to excite admiration, etc.; ostentatious embellishment; ambitious copiousness or amplification; parade of words and figures; show; as, a flourish of rhetoric or of wit.
“He lards with flourishes his long harangue.” — Dryden.
4.
A fanciful stroke of the pen or graver; a merely decorative figure.
“The neat characters and flourishes of a Bible curiously printed.” — Boyle.
5.
A fantastic or decorative musical passage; a strain of triumph or bravado, not forming part of a regular musical composition; a cal; a fanfare.
“A flourish, trumpets! strike alarum, drums!” — Shak.
6.
The waving of a weapon or other thing; a brandishing; as, the flourish of a sword.