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A typical request where I have a word on the tip of my tongue that I just can't place.

UPDATED: A lot of the suggestions are direct synonyms of bragging so I'll try and clear up the context more.

The context that made me think of this word was an argument where one of the participants was spending a lot of time trying to sound intelligent or talk down to the other instead of resolving the issue, so some better examples of similar meanings might be

"Get off of your high horse"

or

"Stop going for the moral high-ground"

but in shorter form.

"Stop singing your praises and get to the point"

Is another good example.

Context could be :

"Enough of the ____. Get to the point."

or in verb form

"Stop ____ and get to the point".

EDIT: As in the comments, formal or slang suggestions accepted.

It could also be a more archaic term, something a King might say to a long-winded herald.

UPDATE:

Synonyms that are close to the right example:

  • ensky
  • adulate
  • flatter
  • commend
  • glorify
  • praise
  • laud

These are good but I feel that something with more negative connotations would be better, or something describing a surplus of one of the above.

Other possible synonyms that don't quite fit:

http://thesaurus.com/browse/brag

  • horn blowing
  • showboating
  • grandstanding
  • narcissism
  • ego-boosting
  • ego-stroking
  • pissing contest
  • chest-beating
  • self-promotion
  • self-love
  • double-speak

One strange example that came the closest was "brown-nosing". Is there a similar term that could be used for brown-nosing oneself so to speak?

Can't offer much else other than I think it's a Gerund, so ending in -ing.

Thanks for all the suggestions anyway.

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  • 1
    Did you try "bragging synonym" thesaurus.com/browse/brag
    – mplungjan
    Jun 23, 2014 at 7:58
  • I had a look but nothing really stuck out. I may be thinking of 'grandstanding' but I'm not sure how well that fits in this context
    – sturrockad
    Jun 23, 2014 at 8:08
  • Do you want formal language or slang?
    – dangph
    Jun 23, 2014 at 8:14
  • 3
    If you already had a look and nothing really stuck out, then please do write down all the terms you already discarded. Otherwise people will post them all over again, wasting your time and theirs.
    – RegDwigнt
    Jun 23, 2014 at 10:17
  • 3
    One word that may be apt in situations like the one you describe is preening. One definition of preen is "to pride or congratulate (oneself) for achievement." The term has an element of boastfulness, an element of showing off, and an element of excessive self-admiration.
    – Sven Yargs
    Jun 25, 2014 at 18:01

16 Answers 16

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+50

Pontificating could work.

For more colloquial use, Bluster is appropriate.

Big Talk might also work

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Enough of the bloviating. Get to the point.

Bloviate To discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner: "the rural Babbitt who bloviates about 'progress' and 'growth'" (George Rebeck).

It could also be a more archaic term, something a King might say to a long-winded herald

Magniloquent: speaking in or characterized by a high-flown often bombastic style or manner

Lexiphanic: using ostentatiously recondite words : bombastic, pretentiousLexiphanes (bombastic speaker in the dialogue Lexiphanes by Lucian, 2d century A.D. Greek satirist)

Ampullosity: Turgidity or bombast

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Formal:

  • Enough self-aggrandizing. Get to the point.
  • Enough congratulating yourself. Get to the point.

Slang (this is what I might say personally):

  • Enough big upping yourself. Get to the point.
  • Enough congratulating yourself on your awesomeness. Get to the point.
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    Also slang: "patting yourself on the back." Even less formal: "Don't strain your shoulder patting yourself on the back. Get to the point."
    – Patrick M
    Jun 23, 2014 at 17:59
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  • Stop acting so self-important, and get to the point.

The most usual form of monomania has commonly the same beginning as that from which Edgar Caswall suffered—an over-large idea of self-importance

  • Stop being so vainglorious, get to the point.

He was an active, irritable, fuming, vainglorious little man, and elevated in his own opinion, by being the proxy of Mr. Astor.
Source

He was silent for a minute, casting about for the least vainglorious way in which to express himself.

"Please don't think I'm bragging," he began. "I don't intend it that way at all. But I have a feeling that I am what I may call a natural student. I can study by myself. I take to it kindly, like a duck to water. You see yourself what I did with grammar. And I've learned much of other things - you would never dream how much. And I'm only getting started."
source

  • Enough of your patronizing. Get to the point.
  • Stop patronising me. Get to the point.
  • Stop being so patronising, get to the point.

She was furious. What right had Lord Dawlish to look down his nose and murmur 'Noblesse oblige' when she asked him a question, as if she had suggested that he should commit some crime? It was the patronizing way he had said it that infuriated her, as if he were a superior being of some kind, governed by codes which she could not be expected to understand.
Source

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  • +1 Patronizing's probably what OP's getting at, if not some manner of condescend.
    – 4444
    Jun 25, 2014 at 20:47
  • 1
    It fits the context but patronizing implies more of a negative effect on the other person than a positive effect on the speaker. Something along the lines of 'patronizing to help validate one's argument' would be better
    – sturrockad
    Jun 26, 2014 at 9:13
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Blathering looks like it might encompass the spectrum of your requirements: it describes unnecessarily excessive speech which nobody cares to hear (except perhaps the speaker). It fits perfectly into your context example, and even sounds a bit archaic to me. It doesn't necessarily connote bragging, but a lot of unimportant braggery could be called blather.

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  • It is a good example but as you mentioned it doesn't have the right connotations. I'd use this for more generic sort of filler speech but the word I'm looking for is more specific. "Blathering with the purpose of promoting yourself" would be a possible definition.
    – sturrockad
    Jun 24, 2014 at 9:58
  • … or “self-serving blathering”?
    – Scott - Слава Україні
    Jun 24, 2014 at 14:51
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I'm thinking Highfalutin. A highfalutin person thinks much of themselves.

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  • That works as an adjective, but not as a verb or a noun (which is what the questioner seems to be after, judging from their examples).
    – Erik Kowal
    Jun 26, 2014 at 8:05
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    You can tell someone to "Stop your highfalutin". It's not grammatically correct, but it is common parlance.
    – superluminary
    Jun 26, 2014 at 9:09
  • My sense of this adjective (and OED agrees) is that it can only really modify some type of discourse, as in highfalutin praise.
    – Brian Donovan
    Jun 27, 2014 at 12:49
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I’m having trouble figuring out what you’re going for, since you have ruled out so many promising possibilities, but here are a few:

I suspect that I’m getting further away from what you want, but I’ll offer these phrases for your consideration:

  • Beating around the bush
  • Begging the question
  • Dodging the question
  • Ducking the question
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  • To be clear I am looking for a specific word. If I can't find it even with a bounty then I'll be happy to accept the answer with the most suitable alternatives. It's useful to have all these possibilities anyway. Puffery would be a good choice as an alternative to a Gerund form like my word may be.
    – sturrockad
    Jun 24, 2014 at 9:31
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Stop flexing and get to the point.

With this usage the reader/listener has to intuit that flexing is being used metaphorically to liken bantering in highfalutin terms to tightening a muscle just to see how big it is—both of which are acts of idleness and vanity. To ask for less of an intuitive jump from the reader/listener, you could extend the phrasing to:

  • flexing your intellect
  • flexing your vocabulary
  • flexing your education
  • etc.
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Well this fits

big-noting

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/big-note

Boastfully exaggerate one’s own wealth or importance:
he’s continually trying to big-note himself

but apparently it's only Australia/NZ.

I also like

ballyhoo

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ballyhoo

a clamorous and vigorous attempt to win customers or advance any cause; blatant advertising or publicity.

but it's of 19th US origin, so not really kingly either.

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hyperbole

"Enough of the hyperbole. Get to the point."

  1. obvious and intentional exaggeration.

Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hyperbole

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    I don't think this communicates the about-oneselfness that the question suggests. It also means deliberate exaggeration which is not necessarily the case either here.
    – Oli
    Jun 23, 2014 at 17:30
1

First thought that comes to my mind is "stop BS-ing."

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I really like kollosus' suggetion of pontificating.

A couple of others along those lines, though not all are single words:

Get off your soapbox

Stop lecturing

Get over yourself

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I would say a person like that is putting on airs.

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  • "Don't be so egotistical",

  • "You're an egomaniac"

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Stop "up-voting" yourself and get to the point.

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How about, Stop blowing smoke?

blow smoke (American) to say things that are not true in order to make yourself or something you are involved with seem better than it is The team put on an unbelievable performance. I'm not just blowing smoke - they were great.

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/blow+smoke

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