Library / English Dictionary

FLOURISH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

(music) a short lively tune played on brass instruments

Example:

her arrival was greeted with a rousing fanfare

Synonyms:

fanfare; flourish; tucket

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("flourish" is a kind of...):

air; line; melodic line; melodic phrase; melody; strain; tune (a succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence)

Domain category:

music (an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of waving

Synonyms:

brandish; flourish

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("flourish" is a kind of...):

wafture; wave; waving (the act of signaling by a movement of the hand)

Derivation:

flourish (move or swing back and forth)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A display of ornamental speech or language

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("flourish" is a kind of...):

grandiloquence; grandiosity; magniloquence; ornateness; rhetoric (high-flown style; excessive use of verbal ornamentation)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A showy gesture

Example:

she entered with a great flourish

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("flourish" is a kind of...):

gesture; motion (the use of movements (especially of the hands) to communicate familiar or prearranged signals)

Sense 5

Meaning:

An ornamental embellishment in writing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("flourish" is a kind of...):

embellishment (a superfluous ornament)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flourish"):

paraph (a flourish added after or under your signature (originally to protect against forgery))

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Grow vigorously

Example:

business is booming

Synonyms:

boom; expand; flourish; thrive

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "flourish" is one way to...):

grow (become larger, greater, or bigger; expand or gain)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "flourish"):

revive (be brought back to life, consciousness, or strength)

luxuriate (thrive profusely or flourish extensively)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sentence example:

The business is going to flourish

Sense 2

Meaning:

Move or swing back and forth

Example:

She waved her gun

Synonyms:

brandish; flourish; wave

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "flourish" is one way to...):

displace; move (cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense)

"Flourish" entails doing...:

hold; take hold (have or hold in one's hands or grip)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "flourish"):

wigwag (send a signal by waving a flag or a light according to a certain code)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

flourish (the act of waving)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make steady progress; be at the high point in one's career or reach a high point in historical significance or importance

Example:

The new student is thriving

Synonyms:

flourish; fly high; prosper; thrive

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "flourish" is one way to...):

change state; turn (undergo a transformation or a change of position or action)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Credits

 Context examples: 

The research also helps answer another question: why phytoplankton growth declined during the 2013-2016 El Niño, while giant kelp flourished.

(Giant kelp switches diet when key nutrient becomes scarce, National Science Foundation)

With that he flourished off the contents of his little tin pot, as if he had made the voyage, and had passed a first-class examination before the highest naval authorities.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The change in the ivory trade coincides with the flourishing of the Norse settlements on Greenland.

(Lost Norse of Greenland fuelled the medieval ivory trade, ancient walrus DNA suggests, University of Cambridge)

As a result, vegetation flourishes on and near termite mounds in ecosystems that are otherwise vulnerable to desertification.

(Dirt mounds made by termites in Africa, South America, Asia could prevent spread of deserts, NSF)

Species that can more easily tolerate low oxygen levels, such as jellyfish, some squid and marine microbes, can flourish at the expense of fish, upsetting the balance of ecosystems.

(Oceans running out of oxygen at unprecedented rate, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

For example, microbes that flourish on granite gravestones in Maine are more like those growing on granite gravestones in Belgium than they are to those on limestone tombstones just feet away.

(Tales from the crypt: Life after death in a graveyard, National Science Foundation)

For some years the organisation flourished in spite of the efforts of the United States government and of the better classes of the community in the South.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"We've had this western conceit that complex civilizations can't flourish in the tropics, that the tropics are where civilizations go to die," Canuto told National Geographic.

(Hidden Mayan Civilization Revealed in Guatemala Jungle, VOA)

The bitter check had wrung from me some tears; and now, as I sat poring over the crabbed characters and flourishing tropes of an Indian scribe, my eyes filled again.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Very close around the stockade—too close for defence, they said—the wood still flourished high and dense, all of fir on the land side, but towards the sea with a large admixture of live-oaks.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)