vapoured
(‘hee bid him putt vppe his rapier; but hee woulde not but vapored with it’):
To vapour was literally ‘to be emitted or diffused, in the form of vapour’ [see OED sv vapour v.]; thus metaphorically, ‘To use language as light or unsubstantial as vapour; to talk fantastically, grandiloquently, or boastingly; to brag or bluster’, and thus ‘To act in a fantastic or ostentatious manner; to show off; to swagger; to walk in with a swaggering air’, usually with the intention of impressing or putting down one's opponent. See OED sv vapour, v. 6. Often of soldiers swaggering (and presumably flourishing their swords, as here).
Close this window