chest-beating

noun

chest-beat·​ing ˈches(t)-ˌbē-tiŋ 

variants or chest beating

: chest-thumping

His nationalist chest-beating also stirred up United States hostility toward his administration.

—Alan Riding, New York Times Magazine, 16 Sept. 1979

chest-beating adjective

To the city of Seattle, it's a moment of chest-beating civic pride.

—Steve Kandell, Spin, September 2008

Word History

First Known Use

1937, in the meaning defined above

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