Don’t Flaunt Your Tendency to Flout the Rules….
… it might make you look silly. Here are a couple of words that are oh-so-frequently interchanged — incorrectly.
Flaunt (pronounced “flawnt”) means to ostentatiously display your behaviour, to show off. The little girl who has just gotten a new dress will show off, strutting about and making it obvious to everyone that she knows she looks good. She’s flaunting her beauty. The football player who spikes the ball and does the funky chicken in the end zone after making a touchdown is flaunting his accomplishment.
Flout (pronounced as it’s spelled) means to intentionally and overtly disregard a rule or instruction. Highway drivers flout the speed laws all the time. The kid who comes to school in jeans and a T-shirt instead of his uniform is flouting the dress code.
So now you know. Don’t flaunt it if you flout the rules over the holiday. In some communities, fireworks are illegal, and if you flout the laws with an ostentatious fireworks display, you may find that flaunting your patriotism has landed you in the local lockup.