ostentatiousadj.

1590 W. Segar Bk. Honor & Armes 38 If in vaunting wise he vttered any ostentacious speach, he should be reprooued by the great Master.

1652 S. Sheppard Secretaries Studie 265 The rarest [show] that ever I saw, was a costly and ostentatious triumph, called a Regatto, presented on the Grand-Canal.

1701 Acct. Life in T. Stanley Hist. Philos. (ed. 3) sig. c This Philosophy has..charmed a World of People by its Proud and Ostentatious Principles.

1716 J. Addison Freeholder No. 39. ⁋5 His Religion was sincere, not ostentatious.

1782 F. Burney Cecilia I. ii. ii. 164 A display of importance so ostentatious made Cecilia already half repent her visit.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. vii. 187 Lewis, with that ostentatious contempt of public law which was characteristic of him, occupied Orange..and confiscated the revenues.

1875 A. Helps Social Pressure xiv. 190 Sir John had taken up his place in a corner of the room, in an attitude of ostentatious humility.

1906 J. Galsworthy Man of Prop. 171 The arms he hugged to himself, partly because, not having paid for them, he thought it would look ostentatious to put them on his carriage.

1988 J. G. Ballard Running Wild 17 A group of long-term unemployed..had been provoked by the ostentatious display of privilege and prosperity into a spasm of murderous rage.

1658 [implied in: Earl of Monmouth tr. P. Paruta Hist. Wars Cyprus 124 To lose their lives without any advantage, would be rather a sign of foolish ostentatiousnesse [It. ostinazione], than of true worth. (at ostentatiousness n.)].

1673 J. Dryden Marriage a-la-Mode iv. iv. 65 As ostentatious Priests, when Souls they wooe, Promise their Heav'n to all, but grant to few.

1700 J. Dryden Fables Ded. sig. Bij Lest I offend your Modesty, which is so far from being ostentatious of the Good you do, that it blushes even to have it known.

1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson I. p. x (advt.) Were I to detail the books which I have consulted..I should probably be thought ridiculously ostentatious.

1865 D. Livingstone & C. Livingstone Narr. Exped. Zambesi xxv. 521 They are not, like the Mohammedans, ostentatious in their prayers.

1884 A. Paul Hist. Reform iv. 71 Active and ostentatious partisans of the French revolutionary movement.

1956 Life 2 Apr. 20/2 Your editorial..repeats a widely publicized misrepresentation of Miss Autherine Lucy as a rude, ostentatious, pushy person. She is not.

1984 Q. Crisp Manners from Heaven i. 13 I was ostentatious in appearance—enough to stop traffic on some occasions and interrupt conversations on others.

1713 R. Steele Guardian No. 6. ⁋5 Coach or troop horses, of which that county produces the most strong and ostentatious.

1790 T. Pennant Of London (1813) 618 That honorable memorial..should..be placed in the most ostentatious situation.

1860 W. Collins Woman in White (new ed.) III. 263 Marian had prepared me for his high stature, his monstrous corpulence, and his ostentatious mourning garments, but not for the horrible freshness and cheerfulness..of the man.

1883 J. A. Froude Short Stud. IV. v. 356 This pair..are the chief figures in the most ostentatious monument in the..chapel.

1951 W. Lewis Rotting Hill i. 15 There are those who live in a gardener's house upon the estate and act as cicerone to sightseers come to visit the huge and ostentatious shell.

1996 J. C. Oates We were Mulvaneys 33 It was a newly purchased car..: one of those overpriced ostentatious American gas-guzzlers, a Lincoln Continental of all things.