• (RP) IPA: /flɔːnt/
• (America) IPA: /flɔnt/
• (cot-caught) IPA: /flɑnt/

Of gmq origin. Perhaps related to Norwegian flanta, Icelandic flana and then also to French flâner.

Alternatively, it could be related to Swedish flankt (compare English flaunt-a-flaunt), from flanka, a nasalised variant of flakka, related to Middle English flacken.

flaunt (flaunts, present participle flaunting; simple past and past participle flaunted)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To wave or flutter smartly in the wind.
2. (transitive) To parade, display with ostentation.

   She’s always flaunting her designer clothes.

3. (intransitive, archaic or literary) To show off, as with flashy clothing.
   • 1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “How Bull and Frog went to Law with Lord Strutt about the Premisses, and were Joined by the Rest of the Tradesmen”, in Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], London: […] John Morphew, […], →OCLC ↗, pages 8–9 ↗:

     You Sot, ſays ſhe, you loyter about Alehouſes and Taverns, ſpend your Time at Billiards, Nine-pins or Puppet-ſhovvs, or flaunt about the Streets in your nevv gilt Chariot, never minding me nor your numerous Family; […]

   • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC ↗:

     One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade.

   • 1856, Dinah Craik, John Halifax, Chapter VI:

     [T]he younger belles had begun to flaunt in the French fashions of flimsy muslins, shortwaisted— narrow-skirted.

   • 1897 October 16, Henry James, chapter XXV, in What Maisie Knew, Chicago, Ill., New York, N.Y.: Herbert S. Stone & Co., →OCLC ↗:

     […] Mrs. Wix seemed to flaunt there in her finery.

• German: kühn wehen, stolz wehen

• French: étaler, exhiber, parader
• German: (etwas) zur Schau stellen, herumstolzieren, stolzieren, paradieren, (etwas) zur Schau tragen, offen zeigen
• Italian: ostentare, esibire, mettere in mostra
• Portuguese: ostentar
• Russian: щеголя́ть
• Spanish: lucir, presumir, ostentar, tremolar

• German: mit (etwas) prunken, protzen, prangen
• Russian: щеголя́ть

flaunt (plural flaunts)

1. (obsolete) Anything displayed for show.
   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     Should I , in these my borrow'd flaunts, behold
     The sternness of his presence?

By confusion with flout.

flaunt (flaunts, present participle flaunting; simple past and past participle flaunted)

1. (proscribed) To flout.