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  1. gewgaw love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A decorative trinket; a bauble.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A showy trifle; a pretty thing of little worth; a toy; a bauble; a gaudy plaything or ornament.
  2. n. A pipe or flute.
  3. n. A Jew′ s-harp.
  4. Showy, without substantial use or worth.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Showy; unreal; pretentious.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A showy trifle; a toy; a splendid plaything; a pretty but worthless bauble.
  2. adj. Showy; unreal; pretentious.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. cheap showy jewelry or ornament on clothing

Etymologies

  1. From earlier gugaw, gygaw, from Middle English givegove ("gewgaw, trifle"), a reduplication of Middle English give, geove ("gift"), from Old English giefu, geofu, geafu ("gift"), from Proto-Germanic *gebō (“gift”). Compare Icelandic gyligjöf ("showy gifts, gewgaw"). More at give. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English giuegaue. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “For profit -- his life blood transmuted into a wine-supper, or a jewelled gewgaw, or some similar sense-orgy of the parasitic and idle rich, his masters, the arch-beasts. ”

    Chapter 6: Adumbrations

  • “Yet, if they won, they would be buying both the gewgaw and a print-out of the story.”

    The Guardian: For sale: the ashtray that inspired William Gibson

  • “I had no problems w/the scent/aroma of da Quarter (aside from Bourbon St. which I generally avoid when in town - tho 'Yesteryear's always has some gewgaw I must possess).”

    Your Right Hand Thief

  • “Grab the first gewgaw and just do it, quick, like ripping off a Band-Aid.”

    Dean Sluyter: Your Junk Drawer vs. Nirvana

  • “Sadly, the book prizes are restricted to residents of the British isles, but as a compensation a further 3 correct entries from outwith these sceptered isles will receive a nifty wee promotional-type gewgaw currently to be decided upon.”

    Seeds Of Earth Competition! – Updated « INTERSTELLAR TACTICS

  • “That just seems common sense at this point: that ‘brand’ is about all the touchpoints with your customers and partners, not just your logo, and not just the latest RIA gewgaw on your homepage.”

    inkblurt · Systems & Ecosystems: Object Oriented Design

  • “Mathayus plans to journey to Egypt to get a mystical weapon to help him defeat the evil Sargon, but quickly learns that he must get a different magic gewgaw, the sword of Damocles, in order to kill his foe.”

    DVD Review: Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior (Blu-ray)

  • “Hunting through the yard sales, second hand shops, and antique malls for a gewgaw is delightful challenge.”

    Archive 2008-01-01

  • “Alas, I cannot find it in my eleemosynary nature to weep a solitary tear for this haut bourgeois pretender and his gewgaw-bearing mate.”

    Black day in July

  • “Handsome settlements, and a chariot, that tempting gewgaw to the vanity of the middling class of females, were the least that she proposed to herself.”

    Clarissa Harlowe

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synonyms (20)

Words with the same meaning

  1. knicknack
  2. bauble
  3. tschotschke
  4. toy
  1. showy
  2. unreal
  3. pretentious
  4. trifle
  1. trinket
  2. kickshaw
  3. knickknack
  4. gimcrack
  1. fizgig
  2. gaud
  3. falderal
  4. folderol
  1. fallal
  2. flapdoodle
  3. flamfew
  4. gewgawish

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. adornment

same context (12)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. knickknack
  2. gimcrack
  1. pinchbeck
  2. bauble
  1. kickshaw
  2. tinsel
  1. overrobe
  2. frippery
  1. anevent
  2. chibouque
  1. dishware
  2. otiose

reverse dictionary (13)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. guegaw
  2. gugaw
  1. guigaw
  2. geegaw
  1. fangle
  2. knickknack
  1. waly
  2. brimborion
  1. bauble
  2. folderol
  1. gimcrack
  2. kickshaw
  1. toy

tags (2)

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  1. cvccvc

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Lists

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Comments

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  • en_dash antonym: Le Corbusier May 2, 2007

  • uselessness It means, well, me. In a nutshell.
    (You may also find the dictionary link above to be helpful. But like I said, it means me.) Mar 23, 2007

  • mager what does this mean? Mar 23, 2007

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‘gewgaw’ has been looked up 2972 times, loved by 6 people, added to 63 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.