\Bom"bast\ (b[o^]m"b[.a]st or b[u^]m"b[.a]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[o^]m*b[.a]st" or b[u^]m*b[.a]st"), v. t.
To swell or fill out; to pad; to inflate. [Obs.]
      Not bombasted with words vain ticklish ears to feed.
                                               --Drayton.