What does "bombast" mean?

Bombast: Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing; padding. [Obs.] How now, my sweet creature of bombast! Shak. Doublets, stuffed with four, five, or six pounds of bombast at least. Stubbes.

Additional senses

2.Fig.: High-sounding words; an inflated style; language above the dignity of the occasion; fustian. Yet noisy bombast carefully avoid. Dryden.
3.High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent; bombastic. [He] evades them with a bombast circumstance, Horribly stuffed with epithets of war. Shak. Nor a tall metaphor in bombast way. Cowley.
4.To swell or fill out; to pad; to inflate. [Obs.] Not bombasted with words vain ticklish ears to feed. Drayton.

Sources

Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
Canonical URL: https://worddirectanswers.com/answers/what-does-bombast-mean
Steward: Jason Burns
Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00