Choose the correct meaning of the idiom/phrase, ‘blowing his own trumpet’. From the alternatives given below-

The correct answer is B) Boasting. 'Blowing one's own trumpet' means praising yourself openly, usually to draw attention to your own achievements. The image comes from the old practice of announcing arrivals with a trumpet, so the idiom is about self-announcement.

• A) Speaking loudly is wrong because volume has nothing to do with the idiom. A person can speak softly and still boast, and the literal sound of a trumpet is only a metaphor here.
• C) Talking incessantly describes a chatterbox, not someone who promotes himself. The idiom needs the content to be self-praise, not just a lot of talk.
• D) Loving himself describes vanity or self-regard as an inner feeling. The idiom is about publicly advertising your merits to others, which is an outward act.

The core concept is idiomatic meaning. For UPPSC, such questions test whether you can map figurative expressions to their exact sense rather than guessing from the literal words. In Mains, the idea links to ethics and to the contrast between self-promotion and quiet competence in public service.

Trap: Aspirants pick D because the word 'self' appears in the option, or A because 'blowing' suggests noise. Check whether the idiom describes an act of publicity or an inner feeling.