Definition of "brandish" [bran•dish]

• To wave or flourish (a weapon, for example) menacingly. (verb-transitive)
• To display ostentatiously. See Synonyms at flourish. (verb-transitive)
• A menacing or defiant wave or flourish. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In a deadly error of judgement, Dziekanski grabbed a stapler (which, in another lapse of police procedure, was not recovered from the scene) and held it up to his chest -- he didn't "brandish" it or "wave" it -- in what could well have been an instinctive defensive move."
• "Now his is not going to "brandish" it, just have it out in plain site, in his hand, ready to use."
• "Only it having been always accounted a very rational and allowed way, to judge what may be by what has been, you may remember that about forty years since this word popery served such as brandish it about the ears of the government now, as an effectual engine to pull down the monarchy to the ground, to destroy episcopacy root and branch, and to rob the church, and almost all honest men, to the last farthing."