FUSTIAN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fustian mean? 

• FUSTIAN (noun)
  The noun FUSTIAN has 2 senses:

1. pompous or pretentious talk or writing

2. a strong cotton and linen fabric with a slight nap

  Familiarity information: FUSTIAN used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FUSTIAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pompous or pretentious talk or writing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

blah; bombast; claptrap; fustian; rant

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

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

A strong cotton and linen fabric with a slight nap

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

cloth; fabric; material; textile (artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting or crocheting natural or synthetic fibers)

 Context examples 

He mounted, as he spoke, a white mule which had been grazing by the wayside, all gay with fustian of gold and silver bells, and rode onward with Sir Nigel's party.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The line is worth a hundred pages of fustian.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I doubt not that if I set you down in my shop at Norwich you might scarce tell fustian from falding, and know little difference between the velvet of Genoa and the three-piled cloth of Bruges.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A jupon of dark blue cloth, tagged with buckles and pendants of gold, seemed but a sombre and plain attire amidst the wealth of silk and ermine and gilt tissue of fustian with which he was surrounded.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)