bravado

It’s a wild switcheroo from a couple of weeks ago, when the Clippers sounded full of bravado, spoiling for a fight.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

Throughout the trial, Davis' defence team tried to persuade jurors that his comments were fiction - bravado and exaggeration intended to sell books and make money.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

His buffoonish bravado and frequent failures alienate everyone who is not completely in his camp.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026

Buzz’s “To infinity and beyond” catchphrase connotes adventure and exploration, and the character’s journey from self-serious bravado to emotional vulnerability has given him a superpower far greater than the ability to fly.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026

Something more than a good singing voice and manly bravado.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

He had listened with much disgust both to the mystic jargon of the soldier and the idle demands and bravadoes of the general.

From Calavar or The Knight of The Conquest, A Romance of Mexico by Robert Montgomery Bird

It was easy to see that these mutual bravadoes were intended only to dazzle the populace, and that the two kings were too wise to think of executing their pretended purpose.

From The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part B. From Henry III. to Richard III. by David Hume

During the time that Ferdinand and Isabella besieged the city, the young Moorish and Spanish knights vied with each other in extravagant bravadoes.

From The Crayon Papers by Washington Irving

Now, failure on every hand awaited him, and all those bravadoes with which he had kept down his better nature deserted him.

From Hatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress of Bellevue by Warren T. Ashton

The Crows drew off out of bow-shot, and endeavored, by taunts and bravadoes, to draw the warriors Out of their retreat.

From The Adventures of Captain Bonneville, U. S. A., in the Rocky Mountains and the Far West by Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville

It would be interesting to stare defiantly at his enemy at close range, to speak with him again man to man, to lure him into further bravados.

From Broken to the Plow by Charles Caldwell Dobie

They made many bravados, daily shooting off forty, fifty, or sixty pieces of ordnance at Nero and Puloway, thinking to frighten us.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 09 Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time by Robert Kerr

Mimi began to laugh and to utter bravados.

From Bohemians of the Latin Quarter by Henry Murger

He must use his poetic powers as wonders attesting the purpose for which he speaks—not as mere bravados of ostentatious power.

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 3, August, 1850. by Various

She makes sorties and attacks, she endeavours to hide her weakness by her bravados, and when she replies most disdainfully to a summons to capitulate, is perhaps on the eve of surrender.

From At Agincourt by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty