Other forms: flourished, flourishing, flourishes
To flourish is to grow strong and successful. The business flourished, plants flourishing, flourish under her.
It is stronger than survive and warmer than succeed, and it carries the image of a plant in full growth — which is exactly where it comes from. It also means to wave something about triumphantly: flourish a letter. As a noun, a flourish is a showy gesture or an ornamental stroke of the pen, and with a flourish means with display.
1verbflourishTo grow strong and successful.
“Under the new owner, the little bookshop flourished.”
2nounshowyA showy gesture or ornamental stroke.
“The waiter lifted the silver cover from the dish with a flourish.”
flourish is a thriving, or a display.
Also accepted in games: thrive
Old French florir comes from Latin florere, to bloom, from flos, a flower. Flora, floral and flourish come from the same flower.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰleh₃-
Latin
florio
Old French
florir
Middle English
floryschen
English, today
flourish
From Middle English floryschen, from Old French florir (via the arrhizotonic stem floriss-), from Latin florio, from Latin floreo, from Latin flos (“flower”). Corresponds to flower + -ish.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sharper Verbs