from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Flourish \Flour"ish\, n.; pl. {Flourishes}.
1. A flourishing condition; prosperity; vigor. [Archaic]
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The Roman monarchy, in her highest flourish, never
had the like. --Howell.
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2. Decoration; ornament; beauty.
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The flourish of his sober youth
Was the pride of naked truth. --Crashaw.
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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.
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He lards with flourishes his long harangue.
--Dryden.
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4. A fanciful stroke of the pen or graver; a merely
decorative figure.
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The neat characters and flourishes of a Bible
curiously printed. --Boyle.
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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.
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A flourish, trumpets! strike alarum, drums! --Shak.
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6. The waving of a weapon or other thing; a brandishing; as,
the flourish of a sword.
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