fanfare

Etymology

Borrowed from French fanfare.

noun

1. (countable) A flourish of trumpets or horns as to announce; a short and lively air performed on hunting horns during the chase.
   They played a short fanfare to announce the arrival of the king.
   This new locomotive was turned out of Doncaster works in May, 1934, to a mighty fanfare of trumpets. 1942 February, O. S. Nock, “The Locomotives of Sir Nigel Gresley: Part VII”, in Railway Magazine, page 44
2. (countable, uncountable) A show of ceremony or celebration.
   The town opened the new library with fanfare and a speech from the mayor.
   I have arrived to catch the 0830 TfW service to Crewe, worked by a tatty and unrefurbished 175114. As if ashamed of its appearance, it slinks into Platform 2 (instead of Platform 1, where it was expected). No announcement had been made, and we leave without any fanfare. December 2 2020, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 67
   Fans relished the traditional FA Cup fanfare from the Coldstream Guards and the hymn Abide With Me before throwing themselves wholeheartedly into an experience they have been largely deprived of since the first coronavirus lockdown began in March 2020. May 15 2021, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 0-1 Leicester”, in BBC Sport

verb

1. To play a fanfare.
   At this the trumpeters again most earnestly fanfared, 1887, Truth - Volume 22, page 33
   The miscreant is shamed into just standing there mortified and not fanfaring at all while the others finish the greeting to the arriving guest. 1993, James W. Gousseff, Street Mime, page 168
   A hundred trumpets fanfared as they entered, echoing brazenly in the black vault above. 2005, Christine Davidson, The Darkling and the Lady
   Trumpets, tabors, shawms, and pipes fanfared the court to the midday repast in the presence chamber. 2009, Rona Sharon, Royal Blood
   In the next room, a vending machine fanfared a five-note bar. 2014, Charles J Harwood, Nora
2. (music) To embellish with fanfares.
   Today the mower's metal music fanfared summer's choir of motley symphonies and high concertos piped or chanted from a treetop, droned above the pollen bee flowers, babbled over stony brook-beds, whispered by the whine of willow, 1946, John Hugh Brignal Peel, Mere England: a poem, page 49
   PAM is a guitar song fanfared by massive chords on an acoustic 12-string (probably (ribbed From The Who's contemporary hit 'Pinball Wizard'). 2008, Ian MacDonald, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, page 364
3. To imitate a fanfare, in order to dramatize the presentation or introduction of something.
   The name of the farm we were staying on was, tun-tun-tah,' I fanfared dramatically, 'Le Tomple, the temple. Spooky eh?' 2008, Hugo Soskin, The Cook, the Rat and the Heretic
   'Wooooeeee!' fanfared Sweetness Asiim Engineer, throwing her head back and letting her greasy bonny black hair reel out behind her like a banner of anarchy. 2010, Ian McDonald, Ares Express
   'Ta-ra!' fan-fared Jackie, showing off her dress. 2014, David Barry, Careless Talk: Secrets and Lies in a town near London
4. To introduce with pomp and show.
   Grindingly, laths of wood yielded to brown and yellow hands, a wrenching and screaming of twisted nails fanfared the discovery of the treasure beneath. 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 463
   Cohorts of charabancs fanfared Offa's province and his concern, negotiating the by-ways from Teme to Trent. 1990, Leonard M. Trawick, World, Self, Poem, page 32
   It could be fêted and fanfared and ushered into the white-tie events with a guest pass that read Literature with a capital 'L'. 2008, Rachel Falconer, The Crossover Novel
   There is a stylishness in his parody of the Resurrection when he arrives in Israel in a robe and cape, fanfared by the Israeli Army Band, 'as though Christ himself were returning to the Mount of Olives 2013, Philip Melling, Fundamentalism in America, page 100
   Brilliantly fanfared by a magic lantern held up for the illumination of wishful thinking, optimism fades into a make-shift omission larger than life, for the faintly foreseeable future. 2014, M. F. Dail, Limbodeswill's Wain, page 383
5. To mark an arrival or departure with music, noise, or drama.
   She stepped neatly into the fray, took up Rover's slack lead and marched him briskly in a northerly direction away from the miniature foe, their retreat fanfared by the triumphant sound of the terrier who obviously thought he had bested an unworthy opponent, and who strutted after them for a few yards, just to make sure they moved well off his territory. 2005, Lesley Zobian, The Hanged Man, page 82
   Among the memorable characters in this epic enterprise are the power-hungry Kenneth Widmerpool, whose beginnings are inauspicious, but who eventually achieves formidable influence through a series of ruthless manoeuvres, and Sir Magnus Donners, at whose mansion World War II is fanfared with a charade of the seven deadly sins. 2006, Dominic Head, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, page 271
   The windows of his family's house had been blown in by the air raids that fanfared Desert Storm, and he'd been shaken awake by American cruise missile strikes in June 1993 and December 1998. 2007, Andrew Mueller, I Wouldn't Start from Here, page 321
   The daffodils I planted in the autumn are marching their way along the path, strident trumpets fanfaring the first warmish day of the year. 2008, Ann Burnett, Loving Mother, page 258
   The 1920s and 1930s consolidated the rise in the standard of life of the London working class that the First World War had so unexpectedly fanfared. 2009, Jerry White, London in the Twentieth Century: A City and Its People, page 226
   Horatio was despatched to summon Philomena. Whose arrival was fanfared with a rip-roarer of a belch, one of such thunderous proportions that the crystal of the chandeliers tinkled and the glass in the windows rattled. 2010, Gregory Dark, Charming!, page 25
   In spring, their arrival is fanfared by a burst of unfamiliar song, followed by the welcome sight of the birds themselves, but in autumn they make a quiet departure with no signal. 2012, Stephen Moss, Wild Hares and Hummingbirds, page 238
6. To publicize or announce.
   So, did quacks cash in on this, fanfaring their own capacity to quell pain? 1989, Roy Porter, Health for Sale: Quackery in England, 1660-1850, page 131
   The launch pad for this was the Seventeenth Party Congress in January 1934, fanfared by press editorials and street slogans assuring the Soviet people that 'Life has become better, life has become happier'. 2006, Ian MacDonald, Raymond Clarke, The New Shostakovich, page 104
   It was fanfared as 'hello, 1964' and advertised as 'the place billionaires goto get away from millionaires'. 2012, Douglas Thompson, Mafialand
   My final pick from my fortnight of engaging with the cold callers was 'Sasha' from The Consumer Centre which, she fanfared, acted for leading UK businesses and charities (I will not name the firms she said she was representing but they are all highly regarded names who I imagine would run a mile from Sasha and her colleagues). 2014, Frances Kay, Allan Esler Smith, The Good Retirement Guide 2014
7. To fan out.
   Just so, light beaded on tin lanterns, drops fanfared from sprinklers, minnows fluted in pools. 2000, Veronica Patterson, Swan, what Shores?, page 11
   These autumn flowers were in full bloom, fanfaring in the cool autumn wind. 2010, Gudmundina Haflidason, Amid The Rubble of World War II, page 213
   Pennants waved, fireworks pranced, fanfaring across the iridescent harbor as the children of the children's, children's, children's, children, danced and held onto the mutual celebration of a past deep shared, and gone forever. 2011, John Tippey, Generally Farting About, page 415