gimcrack

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“
I made the mistake of "getting in the mood" too early for corset friday. the gimcrack is air conditioned so even though sydney is sweltering through a heatwave this week, I still thought I'd be cool enough while wearing a corset under a loose cotton top.

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Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A cheap and showy object of little or no use; a gewgaw.
  2. adjective Cheap and tasteless; gaudy: "The shelves groan with an array of gimcrack gifts from fans: a stuffed piranha fish ... a ceramic ... bull, a papier-mâché replica of an Apollo moonwalker” (Harry F. Waters).

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

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Examples (50)

  • Too many of the other buildings around the lagoon had long since slipped and slid away below the silt, revealing their gimcrack origins, and the Ritz now stood in splendid isolation on the west shore, even the rich blue moulds sprouting from the carpets in the high dark corridors adding to its 19th Century dignity. —  The Drowned World
  • We're marooned with that monster BURGEE'S long, low house was indecently plain, without even so much as a gimcrack or bit of gingerbread decoration. —  GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION
  • Here and there was a Mexican gimcrack, but not many. —  109 - The Too-Wise Owl
  • Every time a shingle is added to the gimcrack, ramshackle governance structure that we're propping up, another door falls off its hinges. —  Dawg's Blawg
  • I am so tempted to order a copy for the gimcrack … … mysterieson March 10, 2009 at 7: 58 am —  gimcrack hospital (PG)
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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 (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Possibly alteration of Middle English gibecrake, small ornament.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from gim, neat, spruce, + crack, n., 14, a pert, lively boy.
 

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/ˈdʒɪmkræk/
by American Heritage

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