flourish
14
6.2
- noun
- /ˈflʌrɪʃ/
:
floritura
- She made her grand announcement with a flourish that captivated the audience.
- a rhetorical flourish
- a flourish of rhetoric
- a mere rhetorical flourish
We're keen and clear, precise language with the occasional flourish to let us into the story.
- We're keen and clear, precise language with the occasional flourish to let us into the story.
- Is this just him closing off a sentence with a kind of parallelism that allows, you know, maybe a flourish at the podium?
Examples
-
Then, with a flourish, he brought them out: a pair of tall leather boots, intricately tooled.
Fiction book (1994) -
"Now, that," she said, taking her hand back with a flourish, "sounds like a line."
Fiction book (1991) -
What I planned as an extra little flourish suddenly became this major number.
-
Close the book with a flourish.
-
I sat him down with a flourish, like a man offering hospitality to a welcome guest.
Fiction book (1993) -
"That's right," he said with a flourish, and set the box on the table beside her plate.
Fiction book (1996) -
Yet whatever it lacked in rhetorical flourish, that letter gripped me from the start.
Academic text (2000) -
Leighton lit the cigar with an elegant flourish and savored its taste.
Fiction book (1990) -
With a shy flourish, you held out another weightless robe, pink and maroon.
Fiction book (1992) -
Favoring his stiff right leg, Thom bowed with a flourish of his gleeman's cloak that set the colorful patches fluttering.
Fiction book (1992)
Synonyms
21
7.6
A grand, showy display meant to impress people
17
5.1
A showy display meant to attract attention
1
7.4
Movements of the hands and arms that show feeling or make a point when you speak
Idioms
How Showy
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word flourish comes from the Latin root florere, which means 'to bloom', and is the same root as flower. A dramatic flourish is like a human 'bloom' — a bold, showy movement or phrase meant to attract attention, which is why we call impressive gestures flourishes.