flour·ish /ˈflɝɪʃ, ˈflʌrɪʃ/
 (vi.)繁榮,茂盛,活躍,手舞足蹈(vt.)揮舞,誇耀茂盛,興旺,華飾


 Flour·ish v. i. [imp. & p. p. Flourished p. pr. & vb. n. Flourishing.]
 1. To grow luxuriantly; to increase and enlarge, as a healthy growing plant; a thrive.
    A tree thrives and flourishes in a kindly . . . soil.   --Bp. Horne.
 2. To be prosperous; to increase in wealth, honor, comfort, happiness, or whatever is desirable; to thrive; to be prominent and influental; specifically, of authors, painters, etc., to be in a state of activity or production.
    When all the workers of iniquity do flourish.   --Ps. xcii 7
    Bad men as frequently prosper and flourish, and that by the means of their wickedness.   --Nelson.
 We say
 Of those that held their heads above the crowd,
 They flourished then or then.   --Tennyson.
 3. To use florid language; to indulge in rhetorical figures and lofty expressions; to be flowery.
    They dilate . . . and flourish long on little incidents.   --J. Watts.
 4. To make bold and sweeping, fanciful, or wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with fantastic and irregular motion.
 Impetuous spread
 The stream, and smoking flourished o'er his head.   --Pope.
 5. To make ornamental strokes with the pen; to write graceful, decorative figures.
 6. To execute an irregular or fanciful strain of music, by way of ornament or prelude.
    Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus?   --Shak.
 7. To boast; to vaunt; to brag.


 Flour·ish, v. t.
 1. To adorn with flowers orbeautiful figures, either natural or artificial; to ornament with anything showy; to embellish. [Obs.]
 2. To embellish with the flowers of diction; to adorn with rhetorical figures; to grace with ostentatious eloquence; to set off with a parade of words. [Obs.]
 Sith that the justice of your title to him
 Doth flourish the deceit.   --Shak.
 3. To move in bold or irregular figures; to swing about in circles or vibrations by way of show or triumph; to brandish.
    And flourishes his blade in spite of me.   --Shak.
 4. To develop; to make thrive; to expand. [Obs.]
    Bottoms of thread . . . which with a good needle, perhaps may be flourished into large works.   --Bacon.


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

 ◄ ►


 flourish
      n 1: a showy gesture; "she entered with a great flourish"
      2: an ornamental embellishment in writing
      3: a display of ornamental speech or language
      4: the act of waving [syn: brandish]
      5: (music) a short lively tune played on brass instruments; "he
         entered to a flourish of trumpets"; "her arrival was
         greeted with a rousing fanfare" [syn: fanfare, tucket]
      v 1: grow stronger; "The economy was booming" [syn: boom, prosper,
            thrive, get ahead, expand]
      2: gain in wealth [syn: thrive, prosper, fly high]
      3: move or swing back and forth; "She waved her gun" [syn: brandish,
          wave]