blatant

Blatant — Bla tant, a. [Cf. {Bleat}.] Bellowing, as a calf; bawling; brawling; clamoring; disagreeably clamorous; sounding loudly and harshly. Harsh and blatant tone. R. H. Dana. [1913 Webster] A monster, which the blatant beast men call. Spenser. [1913… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

blatant — blatant, flagrant 1. Blatant was, invented late in the 16c by the poet Spenser as an epithet of a thousand tongued monster in The Faerie Queene. It now means ‘glaringly conspicuous’, and overlaps in meaning with flagrant but has rather less of… …   Modern English usage

blatant — (adj.) 1596, in blatant beast, coined by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queen to describe a thousand tongued monster representing slander; probably suggested by L. blatire to babble. It entered general use 1650s, as noisy in an offensive and vulgar …   Etymology dictionary

blatant — [adj1] obvious; brazen arrant, bald, barefaced, brassy, clear, conspicuous, crying, flagrant, flashy, flaunting, garish, gaudy, glaring, glitzy, impudent, loud, meretricious, naked, obtrusive, ostentatious, outright, overbold, overt, plain,… …   New thesaurus

blatant — ► ADJECTIVE ▪ open and unashamed; flagrant. DERIVATIVES blatancy noun blatantly adverb. ORIGIN first used by the poet Edmund Spenser in blatant beast to describe a thousand tongued monster, then in the sense «clamorous»: perhaps from Scots… …   English terms dictionary

blatant — [blāt′ nt] adj. [coined by SPENSER2 Edmund, prob. < L blaterare, to babble, or E dial. blate, to bellow] 1. disagreeably loud or boisterous; clamorous 2. glaringly conspicuous or obtrusive [blatant ignorance] SYN. VOCIFEROUS blatantly adv …   English World dictionary

blatant — I (conspicuous) adjective apparent, celebrated, clear, discernible, exposed, famous, manifest, noticeable, notorious, observable, obvious, outstanding, overt, patent, perceivable, plain, prominent, public, sensational, well known II (obtrusive)… …   Law dictionary

blatant — clamorous, *vociferous, strident, boisterous, obstreperous Analogous words: assertive, self assertive, pushing, *aggressive, militant: *vocal, articulate, voluble, glib: vulgar, *coarse, gross Antonyms: decorous: reserved Contrasted words: * …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

blatant — [16] Blatant appears to have been coined, or at least introduced, by the poet Edmund Spenser. In the Faerie Queene 1596 he describes how ‘unto themselves they [Envy and Detraction] gotten had a monster which the blatant beast men call, a dreadful …   The Hutchinson dictionary of word origins

blatant —  , flagrant  The words are not quite synonymous. Something that is blatant is glaringly obvious and contrived ( a blatant lie ) or willfully obnoxious ( blatant commercialization ) or both. Something that is flagrant is shocking and reprehensible ( …   Bryson’s dictionary for writers and editors

blatant — blatancy, n. blatantly, adv. /blayt nt/, adj. 1. brazenly obvious; flagrant: a blatant error in simple addition; a blatant lie. 2. offensively noisy or loud; clamorous: blatant radios. 3. tastelessly conspicuous: the blatant colors of the dress.… …   Universalium