From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbravadobra‧va‧do /brəˈvɑːdəʊ $ -doʊ/ noun [uncountable] BRAVEbehaviour that is deliberately intended to make other people believe you are brave and confident youthful bravado
Examples from the Corpus
bravado• As after all I was not a bad little boy but I was shy and covered it up by bravado.• Having gone that long undetected by the enemies sitting almost next to me, I'd got my over-confident bravado back with interest.• Other work-inhibited students express a false bravado.• My bravado emanated from the knowledge that a certain lady was looking out of her window.• But there was no bravado in it at the time.• Later, in the retelling, the act would take on a certain amount of bravado.• Alternatively, respondents may exaggerate their delinquencies out of bravado, especially likely with juveniles.• The snakes eat themselves at the top of the food-chain out of habit or boredom or sheer bravado.• The new recruits were full of youthful bravado.Origin bravado (1500-1600) French bravade and Old Spanish bravata, from Old Italian bravata, from brava; → BRAVE1 