Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Boastful / braggart: Describes a person who speaks with excessive pride and self-praise, often exaggerating their abilities, achievements, or importance.
   • Bombastic / vainglorious: Characterizes speech or behavior that is pompous, arrogant, and full of empty, self-aggrandizing claims.

2. Verb (to act in this manner):

   • To brag / to boast / to swagger: The act of talking with excessive pride, often in a loud, arrogant, and showy manner.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:

  • Anh ta là một kẻ huênh hoang. (He is a boastful person.)
  • Đừng nghe những lời huênh hoang của hắn. (Don't listen to his bombastic words.)

• Verb:

  • Hắn chỉ biết huênh hoang về quá khứ. (He only knows how to brag about the past.)
  • Chưa làm được gì mà đã huênh hoang. (To brag about what has not been achieved.)

Advanced Usage

• The term often carries a strong negative connotation, implying that the boasting is unwarranted, annoying, and disconnected from reality or actual accomplishment.
• It is frequently used in critiques of character, highlighting arrogance and a lack of humility.

Variants and Related Words

• Khoác lác (v/adj): to lie boastfully; to talk big. Often used similarly but can imply more outright falsehood.
• Ba hoa (v/adj): to babble or talk nonsense boastfully; to be a blowhard.
• Tự cao tự đại (idiomatic phrase): to be conceited and arrogant.

Synonyms

• Boastful: showing excessive pride.
• Braggart: a person who boasts.
• Pompous: affectedly grand, solemn, or self-important.
• Vainglorious: excessively proud of oneself, especially concerning one's achievements.

Related Idioms

• Huênh hoang khoác lác: A common paired phrase emphasizing empty, loud boasting.
  • Cả bài diễn văn chỉ toàn là huênh hoang khoác lác. (The entire speech was nothing but pompous bragging.)

1. Brag
   • Chưa làm được gì mà đã huênh hoang
     To brag about what has not been achieved