Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Marked by strident color or excessive ornamentation; gaudy.
- adj. Loud and flashy: garish makeup. See Synonyms at gaudy1.
- adj. Glaring; dazzling: "Hide me from Day's garish eye” ( John Milton).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Glaring; staring; showy; dazzling; hence, glaringly or vulgarly gaudy.
- Extravagantly gay; flighty.
- Synonyms Flaunting, flashy, tawdry.
Wiktionary
- adj. Overly ostentatious; so colourful as to be in bad taste.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Showy; dazzling; ostentatious; attracting or exciting attention.
- adj. Gay to extravagance; flighty.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. tastelessly showy
Etymologies
- Perhaps from Old Norse gaurr ("rough fellow"). (Wiktionary)
- Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“And I forgot to mention the billboards – giant things stretching from the ground up to about 15 – 20 feet up, typically in garish yellow or red, no pictures, just Chinese characters, and frequently tattered, faded, and torn.”
“Now, a lot of the time, this is littered with various large kids 'toys, things to ride on in garish colors and whatnot.”
“Children playing, men in garish Hawaiian shirts at the grill, women in fun and flirty sundresses, sprinklers on lawns, and older ladies fanning themselves make a tapestry of summer.”
“While the Trumps and Iacoccas of the world prefer to present themselves in garish books with jackets featuring large color photos of their own faces, Buffett, the legendary midwestern cheapskate with a knack for discovering hidden value in cookware clubs (The Pampered Chef) and encyclopedia publishers (World Book), has reclaimed a form of junk mail for his collected works.”
“He owns and possesses in garish, exorbitant fashion.”
“The Church of St. Eloi was very ancient, and adorned with strange old statues of clumsily carved stone painted in garish colors.”
“Meanwhile, the eyes of Jonathan S. Paul, of T Magazine’s The Moment blog, have been lingering both on technology that can be camouflaged and cables to connect them in garish colors.”
C.E.S. Picks: Wireless Video Networks and G.P.S. for Dogs - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
“It is printed on paper made apparently from gray oatmeal, pressed between illustrated covers seven times too vivid to be called garish, and shipped in car-load lots to all points of the English-speaking compass.”
“The production struck me as obvious and not a little garish, which isn't necessarily out of place in this kind of material, although the big orgy at her place looked a bit to much like what you'd find at a frat house beer bash.”
“As well call the garish new building on the embankment Sion College.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘garish’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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bbc uk china vocab.
conservationists, estimate, threats, infertility, eating away at, endangered, furry, panel, in trouble, gongs, triumphed, caps and 1007 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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my fab list
blowsabella, aperçu, froideur, salubrious, abject, gallipot, mumchance, wainscot, virago, macerate, lascivious, clandestine and 181 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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wallace
Remington, Windsor, prorector, wen, aver, mottle, seltzer, tepee, lapidary, effete, sotto, presbyopia and 355 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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Blood Meridian
scullery, Leonid, parricide, boll, boatswain, walleyed, divest, diffident, rookery, coiffure, heady, garish and 177 more...
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trait treats
efficacious, garish, implacable, intrepid, soporific, somniferous, fetid, lurid, undaunted, debonair, quiescent, fabulist
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Unfamiliar words from Cat's Cradle by...
conveyances, folly, anecdotes, parable, flue, dawdling, bough, spiraea, illustrious, unsung, enterprising, loafed and 116 more...
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October Words-10033
During the month of October, post at least 10 new words to this list. Make sure you cite where you read the word (book/author/pg) and quote the context/sentence where you found it. If someone has a...
bedel, nirvana, colloquialisms, Porcine, proletariat, Xanadu, decorous, bourgeois, unencumbered, gratis, cosseted, Brank and 30 more...
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MyList
peter out, fraying, jump on the bandw..., indignation, eclectic, hung up, salutary, hoary, warped, glaring, blue-collar, concomitant and 105 more...
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ICE
quincunx, adoxography, panjundrum, breloque, surd, scripturient, rousant, favrile, embouchure, aquarelle, griffonage, sussultatory and 491 more...
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word tank
a couple words
logolepsy, nefarious, quintessential, tintinnabulation, serendipity, rhapsody, palimpsest, panoply, mellifluous, imbue, loquacious, garrulous and 174 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for garish.
thinkcharlene Will & Grace - Season 8, Episode 8 - "Swish Out of Water" Jun 13, 2007