Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A gaudy or showy ornament or trinket.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Jest; joke; sport; pastime; trick; artifice.
- n. A piece of showy finery; a gay trapping, trinket, or the like; any object of ostentation or exultation.
- n. Same as gaudy, 3.
- To sport; jest; make merry.
- To adorn with gauds or trinkets; decorate meretriciously; paint, as the cheeks.
- n. A Scotch form of goad and of gad, 5.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Trick; jest; sport.
- n. Deceit; fraud; artifice; device.
- n. An ornament; a piece of worthless finery; a trinket.
- v. To sport or keep festival.
- v. To bedeck gaudily; to decorate with gauds or showy trinkets or colors; to paint.
WordNet 3.0
- n. cheap showy jewelry or ornament on clothing
Etymologies
- Middle English gaud, gaudi, sing. of gaudies, large, ornamental beads on a rosary, trinkets, from Medieval Latin gaudia, from Latin, pl. of gaudium, joy (referring to the Joyful Mysteries of the Virgin Mary), from gaudēre, to rejoice; see gāu- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Such gaud is characteristic of the spiritual harlot (Re 17: 4).”
“His clothes were not precisely gaud. v, but the republican simplicity of Neuvamerica found them barbaric -- high-collared blouse, baggy blue trousers tucked into soft half boots, surcoat embroidered with twined snakes and flowers, a silver dragon brooch.”
“Like SHE in her lonely alien gaud waiting her Egyptian lover so I wait -- bereft of 2,000 years and the bath of life.”
“Where got you that rich gaud for covering, that spangled shell — a tortoise living in the mountains?”
“Can't Post | oh i forgot since there are in fact a bunch of old farts playing in gaud 3 times a week i will be bringing hockey sticks and my bag full of hockey gear-if they allow noxious dangerous goods across the border.”
Ok, I have read this thing for over a year..............I'm coming anyway!
“Taizu closed her fist around a gold amulet she wore, part of the mercenary's gaud, and took it off over her head.”
2005
“When the Christian Sons of Temperance came along with a regalia, and a red sash that carried with it rank and the privilege of inventing pass-words, the gaud of these things got into his eyes, and he gave up smoking (which he did rather gingerly) and swearing (which he did only under heavy excitement), also liquor”
“The thrifty Mifleh pressed upon me one halfpenny in exchange, that he might plead purchase; and when I came past a few weeks later and saw that the gaud was gone, he cursed loudly in my hearing the sacrilege of some godless Sherari, who had robbed his ancestor.”
“Her secrets: old featherfans, tasselled dancecards, powdered with musk, a gaud of amber beads in her locked drawer.”
“Indian corn, and strings of dried apples and peaches, hung in gay festoons along the walls, mingled with the gaud of red peppers; and”
Lists
‘gaud’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
bilby Surelie gaud-ie on Wordie. Apr 10, 2009
fbharjo gaud-y Apr 10, 2009