These words refer to feelings of self-congratulation. Boast may suggest justifiable self-satisfaction: a college that boasts an unusually high number of distinguished Old Boys. More often, however, the word suggests a self-important and tasteless pointing out of one’s own successes: He monopolized the conversation by boasting of his own prowess at hunting and fishing; continually boasting and blowing his own horn. Occasionally the word can refer to self-congratulation for a victory not yet won: He boasted that he would finish off the challenger in the first round. Pride is close to the justified self-satisfaction possible for boast, but it more often specifically suggests private self-regard rather than a public expression of it; it is usually reflexive: He secretly prided himself on a life of absolute honesty. The word can suggest a stiff-necked self-righteousness or a faulty estimate of one’s own virtues: Priding himself on his democratic outlook, he nevertheless sent his children to a private school.

Brag intensifies the note of tastelessness in boast , suggesting limitless conceit and, possibly, inaccuracy of the claims being made: bragging about his imaginary exploits in the last war; bragging about his son’s success at school as a way of patting himself on the back. Crow suggests noisy or vociferous bragging of an extremely offensive kind after the event: publicly crowing about the defeat of his opponent. Gloat is an intensification of crow . Although it need not be verbal and sometimes suggests taunting someone that one has bested: rubbing his hands in secret and gloating over the way he had made the other applicants look foolish; gloating openly and lording it over those who had failed the examination.

Strut suggests less animus than gloat but it is similar in not necessarily being verbal. It invariably suggests, however, an act done as a matter of public display: so puffed up and smug over his recent successes that he could not refrain from strutting about and preening himself before his fewer and fewer friends. Vaunt is considerably more formal than the other words here; it compares to the understandable self-satisfaction suggested by boast , but it is a shade more self-righteous, possibly suggesting a claim that cannot be substantiated. It differs from pride in usually implying a public expression of self-esteem: vaunting far and wide the cultural opportunities lying in wait for visitors to their small town.