c1600 T. Deloney 2nd Pt. Gentle Craft viii. sig. K^v (heading) Of Tom Drums vants, & his rare entertainment at Mistres Farmers house.

1625 F. Bacon Ess. (new ed.) 308 They that are Glorious, must needs be Factious... They must needs be Violent, to make good their owne Vaunts.

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost iv. 84 The spirits beneath, whom I seduc'd With other promises and other vaunts Then to submit, boasting I could subdue Th' Omnipotent. View more context for this quotation

1694 J. Dryden Love Triumphant i. 2 The haughty Captive, who had made his Vaunts To lay their Dwellings level.

1716 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad II. v. 580 Now, now thy Country calls her wonted Friends, And the proud Vaunt in just Derision ends.

a1735 G. Granville Ess. Unnat. Flights Poetry 51 Such vaunts as his who can with patience read?

1798 S. T. Coleridge Fears in Solitude 10 May the vaunts And menace of the vengeful enemy Pass like the gust.

1818 H. Hallam View Europe Middle Ages II. ix. 467 A writer of the thirteenth [century] asserts that all the world was clothed from English wool wrought in Flanders. This indeed is an exaggerated vaunt.

1855 W. H. Prescott Hist. Reign Philip II of Spain I. i. i. 2 Spain then first realized the magnificent vaunt,..that the sun never set within the borders of her dominions.

1882 F. W. Farrar Early Days Christianity II. 58 For a man to boast of wisdom when his heart is full of bitter emulation and party spirit is a lying vaunt.

1565 J. Jewel Replie Hardinges Answeare ii. 98 But that the same humanitie of Christ is in the Sacrament, in such grosse sorte, as is supposed by our aduersaries, notwithstandinge many bolde vauntes thereof made, yet was it hitherto neuer proued.

1589 R. Greene Menaphon sig. H4^v Telling her how he was a King,..what power he had to aduance her; with many other proud vaunts of his wealth.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) iii. i. 50 [He] by reputing of his high discent..And such high vaunts of his Nobilitie, Did [etc.] . View more context for this quotation

1654 T. Gataker Disc. Apol. 80 Of which his vain pretension, and his freqent vaunts thereof being by letters minded and admonished, he returns this Answer.

1778 R. Lowth Isaiah (ed. 12) Notes 217 They introduce him as uttering the most extravagant vaunts of his power and ambitious designs.

1826 W. Scott Rev. Kemble's Life, Biogr. (1849) 200 Assassins [were] approaching him..in the very midst of his triumphant vaunt of his repeated victories.

1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes Chiesta,..a vaunt or vye in gaming.

14.. W. Langland Piers Plowman C. vii. 35 Me wilnynge þat men wende ich were..Riche,..Bostynge and Braggynge wyth meny bolde oþes, Auauntyng vp-on [Ilchester MS. Vauntyng vp] my veine glorie for eny vndernymynge.

c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 508/1 Vaunton, or a-vaunton or booston, jacto, ostento.

?1521 A. Barclay Bk. Codrus & Mynalcas sig. Ciij They laude their verses, they bost, they vaunt & get.

1570 P. Levens Manipulus Vocabulorum sig. Biv^v/1 To Vaunt, gloriare.

1580 J. Lyly Euphues (new ed.) f. 88 But I wil not vaunt before the victory.

1603 J. Davies Microcosmos 63 For South-ward, Men are cruell, moody, madd, Hot, blacke, leane, leapers, lustfull, vsd to vant.

1630 tr. G. Botero Relations Famous Kingdomes World (rev. ed.) 476 All this (as the drunkard will vaunt,) for the honour of..the Prince.

1699 W. Temple Introd. Hist. Eng. 583 He talk'd little, never vaunted, observ'd much, was very secret.

1700 J. Dryden tr. Ovid Of Pythagorean Philos. in Fables 516 In time he vaunts among his youthful Peers, Strong-bon'd, and strung with Nerves, in pride of Years.

1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Iliad in Iliad & Odyssey I. xi. 462 Transported from his ambush forth he leap'd With a loud laugh, and, vaunting, thus exclaim'd: Oh shaft well shot! it galls thee.

1805 ‘E. de Acton’ Nuns of Desert I. 145 Sometimes vowing never-ceasing affection, then vaunting in his power, threatening revenge for her disdainful repulsion of offers.

1826 A. Scott Poems 97 He could vaunting tell, That he wad face the ghaist.

1577 Vicary's Profitable Treat. Anat. sig. B.j A cunning and skilful Chirurgion neede neuer vaunt of his dooings.

1584 R. Greene Morando sig. C2 They thinke no man so able to attchiue any enterprise as he, vaunting of his victories.

a1592 R. Greene Comicall Hist. Alphonsus (1599) ii. sig. C3^v And then I meane to vaunt of our victorie.

1605 W. Camden Remaines ii. 12 The vanity of them which vaunt of their auncient nobility.

1634 W. Tirwhyt tr. J. L. G. de Balzac Lett. 394 He..blusheth not at Christian vertues, nor vanteth of moral ones.

1663 B. Gerbier Counsel to Builders 93 The Hollanders..Vant of their scarcity of theeves.

1718 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad IV. xiii. 82 Here Hector..Vaunts of his Gods, and calls high Jove his Sire.

1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1775 I. 468 He did not vaunt of his new dignity, but I understood he was highly pleased with it.

1802 E. Parsons Myst. Visit IV. 53 Who, like the proud Pharisee,..proudly vaunt on their own virtues.

1819 Ld. Byron Don Juan: Canto I i. 3 Of such as these I should not care to vaunt.

1821 J. Baillie W. Wallace in Metrical Legends v The meanest drudge will sometimes vaunt Of independent sires.

1549 M. Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. II. 2 Pet. ii. f. xix They are rather filthe and spottes, who in their filthie glotonous bankettinges..vaunt against you, as though you were madde menne.

1591 E. Spenser Virgil's Gnat in Complaints sig. K2^v And all that vaunts in worldly vanitie, Shall fall through fortunes mutabilitie.

1605 1st Pt. Jeronimo sig. F^v (stage direct.) Andrea slain and Prince Balthezer vanting on him.

1609 W. Shakespeare Sonnets xv. sig. B4 When I perceiue that men as plants increase, Cheared and checkt euen by the selfe-same skie: Vaunt in their youthfull sap, at height decrease.

1628 W. Prynne Vnlouelinesse of Louelockes 40 Who vaunts, and triumphes, in the length and largenesse of his Locke.

1796 R. Southey Joan of Arc vii. 86 So erst from earth Antæus vaunting in his giant bulk, When graspt by force Herculean, down he fell Vanquish'd.

1805 ‘E. de Acton’ Nuns of Desert II. 254 She vaunted over the ‘humble and meek’.

1611 J. Florio Queen Anna's New World of Words Chiestare,..to vant it or vie it in gaming.

1614 W. Browne Shepheards Pipe i. i Hearke, how yonder Thrustle chants it, And her mate as proudly vants it.

1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid i. ix. 85 Full oft him self extoll and vant he wald Of Troiane bluide to be descend of ald.

1562 N. Winȝet Wks. (S.T.S.) II. 27 Donatistis..quha craikis and wanetis thame be the auctoritie of that counsel to baptize agane.

1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie iv. xxviii. 146 b Shooting.., whereof they do vaunt themselues to haue been the first inuentors.

1625 F. Bacon Ess. (new ed.) 152 Pompey vaunted Himselfe for Sylla's Ouermatch.

1816 W. Scott Black Dwarf xvii, in Tales of my Landlord 1st Ser. I. 321 Thou vauntest thyself a philosopher?

1577 Test. of 12 Patr. (1604) 52 Ye shall be swoln with wickedness in the priesthood,..not only vaunting and boasting your selves against men, but also being puffed and swoln up with pride against the commandments of God.

1596 W. Lambarde Perambulation of Kent (rev. ed.) 261 The Church that yet vaunteth it selfe with two steeples.

1611 Bible (King James) 1 Cor. xiii. 4 Charitie enuieth not: charitie vaunteth not it selfe, is not puffed vp. View more context for this quotation

1663 S. Patrick Parable of Pilgrim (1687) xi. 67 Hath he not crowned himself with greater glory in not vaunting himself in those Trophies?

c1696 M. Prior Partial Fame 7 He vaunts His Conquest, She conceals Her Shame.

1718 Free-thinker No. 65. 1 A Keeper of Bears may as well vaunt his Policy, as a Ruler of Slaves.

1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting I. Pref. p. vi This country, which does not always err in vaunting it's own productions.

1821 W. Scott Kenilworth III. xii. 226 He really felt the ascendancy which he vaunted.

1853 C. Merivale Fall Rom. Republic viii. 226 The Roman matron was taught indeed to vaunt her ignorance as a virtue.

1878 R. W. Emerson Sov. Ethics in Wks. (1906) III. 372 In ignorant ages it was common to vaunt the human superiority by underrating the instinct of other animals.

1633 P. Fletcher Poeticall Misc. 87 in Purple Island They cut my heart, they vant that bitter word, Where is thy trust? where is thy hope?