gaudy

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“
This was perilous; nor was this all: Lord Vargrave knew that in London--gaudy, babbling, and remorseless London--all that he could most wish to conceal from the young lady would be dragged to day.

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Definitions (18)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. adjective Showy in a tasteless or vulgar way.
  2. Syntax Note
    Synonyms: gaudy1, flashy, garish, loud, meretricious, tawdry
    These adjectives mean tastelessly showy: a gaudy costume; a flashy ring; garish colors; a loud sport shirt; a meretricious yet stylish book; tawdry ornaments.
  3. noun Chiefly British A feast, especially an annual university dinner.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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Examples (50)

  • Nobody minds a little creative conjecture every so often, but trying to trace a word such as gaudy , which has been in common usage since the sixteenth century, to a twentieth-century architect whose name just happens to sound like gaudy is a bit much. —  The Word Detective
  • The statue was gaudy -- green with patina, black and white with pigeon and seagull droppings. —  F ;SF; - vol 087 issue 03 - September 1994
  • There was nothing bawdy or gaudy--no hangars stuck up like modernistic nightmares, for all the hangars were disguised as English country barns. —  094 - The Men Vanished
  • Her jewelry looked just a little gaudy, a rhinestone pin that might be best for evening. —  Celtic Riddle
  • His bizarre dress was tasteless and gaudy, and did not match his sensitive face and long-fingered, almost delicate hands, yet he flaunted it since it emphasised the fact that he did not belong in any company--that he was an outsider and an outcast.
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

gorgeous ·  colorful ·  garish ·  scarlet ·  showy ·  costly ·  tattered ·  tawdry ·  ornate ·  sumptuous ·  dazzle ·  variegated
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Possibly from gaudy2 (influenced by gaud).
  2. Middle English gaudi, gaud, prank, trick, possibly from Old French gaudie, merriment (from gaudir, to enjoy, make merry, from Latin gaudēre, to rejoice) and from Latin gaudium, enjoyment, merry-making (from gaudēre, to rejoice; see gāu- in Indo-European roots).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from gaud + -y.
  2. Formerly also gawdy; in def. 3, from Middle English gaudee, from Old French gaudé, masculine, gaudee, feminine, a bead, prayer, equivalent to gaude, a gaud, bead; in other senses like gaudy, adjective, but in part from Old French gaudie, from Latin gaudium, joy: see gaud, n.
  3. from gaudy, adjective
 

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/ˈgɔdi/
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