blustering means engaged in or involving the process of blustering, speaking or protesting loudly. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 78 out of 100.
Why “blustering” is a great word
BLUSTERING — [Adjective] Characterized by loud, boastful, or bullying speech or behavior, or of wind: blowing violently. From the verb 'bluster' (to speak or act in a noisy, boastful, or bullying manner, or of wind: to blow violently) + the suffix '-ing' (forming the present participle and participial adjectives). The verb 'bluster' is of uncertain origin, first recorded in English c. 1520–30; perhaps from Middle Low German blüsteren. Unlike 'strident,' which denotes a harsh, grating sound, or 'blustery,' which neutrally describes gusty weather, 'blustering' is a performance of power meant to conceal its absence. It is the politician pounding a hollow podium, the sea hurling itself against a cliff only to retreat as foam, and the wind that rattles the windowpane before dying into an impotent sigh—a grand display that leaves nothing changed but the air.
Etymology
By surface analysis, bluster + -ing.
adj
- Engaged in or involving the process of blustering, speaking or protesting loudly.“But when we began to renue our old acquaintance, and to shake the handes of discontinued familiaritie, alas, good Gentleman, his mandillion was ouercropped, his witt paunched like his wiues spindle, his art shanked like a lath, his conceit as lank as a shotten herring, and that same blustering eloquence as bleake and wan as the Picture of a forlorne Loouer.”
- Pompous or arrogant in one's speech or bearing.“The Old Inquirer, said Dick Honesty, in' visiting the sick, has seen too many bold, blustering Infidels, in this nasty condition, to entertain the smallest penchant either for their principles, or their exqusitely delightful exits.”
- Very windy; (of wind) blowing very strongly, blustery.“The southern wind
Doth play the trumpet to his purposes,
And by his hollow whistling in the leaves
Foretells a tempest and a blustering day.”
noun
- A noisy blowing, as of a blast of wind.“He will soon disregard the roaring of your eloquence, as the bold sailor contemns the blustering of the winds […]”
- Swaggering; braggartry; noisy pretension.“Boasting and blustering are as objectionable among nations as among individuals, and the public men of a great nation owe it to their sense of national self-respect to speak courteously of foreign powers just as a brave and self-respecting man treats all around him courteously.”