blatant

  • 1Blatant — 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

  • 2blatant — 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

  • 3blatant — (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

  • 4blatant — [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

  • 5blatant — ► 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

  • 6blatant — [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

  • 7blatant — 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

  • 8blatant — 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

  • 9blatant — [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

  • 10blatant —  , 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