Bom"bast (b&obreve;m"b&adot;st or bŭm"b&adot;st; 277), n. [OF. bombace cotton, LL. bombax cotton, bombasium a doublet of cotton; hence, padding, wadding, fustian. See Bombazine.] 1. Originally, cotton, or cotton wool. [Obs.]

A candle with a wick of bombast.
Lupton.

2. Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing; padding. [Obs.]

How now, my sweet creature of bombast!
Shak.

Doublets, stuffed with four, five, or six pounds of bombast at least.
Stubbes.

3. Fig.: High-sounding words; an inflated style; language above the dignity of the occasion; fustian.

Yet noisy bombast carefully avoid.
Dryden.

Bom"bast, a. High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent; bombastic.

[He] evades them with a bombast circumstance,
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war.
Shak.

Nor a tall metaphor in bombast way.
Cowley.

Bom*bast" (b&obreve;m*b&adot;st" or bŭm*b&adot;st"), v. t. To swell or fill out; to pad; to inflate. [Obs.]

Not bombasted with words vain ticklish ears to feed.
Drayton.

• Originally, cotton, or cotton wool.
  
• Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing; padding.
  
• Fig.: High-sounding words; an inflated style; language above the dignity of the occasion; fustian.
  
• To swell or fill out; to pad; to inflate.
  
• High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent; bombastic.