تبرّج
Tabarraja
To display oneself, one’s beauty or one’s wealth out of vanity; the verbal noun is tabarruj.
What it means
The verb tabarraja means to show off, to expose oneself or one’s adornment so as to be noticed. Faruqi gives it as to expose oneself, one’s beauty or one’s property in vanity. The point lies in the motive: display for the sake of pride or attention. The Quran forbids it to the wives of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him): “Do not display yourselves as in the former times of ignorance” (33:33). It also exempts older women who no longer expect marriage from some outer requirements, provided they do not display adornment (24:60). Scholars apply the word to both sexes and to wealth, speech and manners as well as dress.
Often misunderstood as
Tabarruj is commonly narrowed to a rule about women’s clothing, when the Quran uses it for vain display in general.
What the sources say
Commentators on 33:33 connect the phrase “former times of ignorance” with the pre-Islamic habit of women walking before men with exposed adornment in order to attract them. Jurists derived from the verse and from 24:31 the guidance that modesty applies in dress, manner and speech.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 24, listed as TABARRAJA. The definition is restated here.