tinsel

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Or think you it's stupid To send such a commonplace gift as a Purse Do you sigh for the tinsel, and gauze, and the Cupid And the wonderful sentiments written in verse Well, suppose I had sent them.

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Definitions (24)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun Very thin sheets, strips, or threads of a glittering material used as a decoration.
  2. noun Something sparkling or showy but basically valueless: the tinsel of parties and promotional events.
  3. adjective Made of or decorated with tinsel.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (10)

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

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (5)

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Examples (50)

  • The atmosphere in the club was as gay as tinsel, and they drank and talked about all that had happened to them since Kesselheim left the boat. —  Grey Wolf, Grey Sea
  • One robot carried a basket stuffed full of tinsel, another long twisting chains of realistic-looking holly and the third a carton of nearglass bulbs I thought we were going to decorate it," said Thad No, Grandfather always thought children got too exuberant and noisy with jobs like this," said the girl. —  BEN BOVA Editor
  • It was the jingle of tinsel, and yet there was hard steel in it somewhere. —  Astounding Stories June, 1935
  • Jury was surprised to see the window festooned with scraggly blue and brassy-orange tinsel, the sad remains of the passing season. —  Martha Grimes - The Old Silent
  • Good-bye, Prince She turned away, joyfully clasping to her breast a satin-striped box, in which beneath paper lace and tinsel was the most delicious candy; a whole box full all but a few bites, as Alene had said; while the latter leaned over the wall calling more good-byes, and Prince kept up a continuous barking that said so plainly, once you understood his language, "Good-bye! —  Peggy-Alone
 

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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

bauble ·  trinket ·  gaud ·  tawdry ·  jewelry ·  frippery ·  finery ·  trappings ·  gaudy ·  embroidery ·  trimming ·  pinchbeck
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 (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English tineseile, from Old French estincelle, spangle, spark; see stencil.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English tinsel, tinsale, tinsill, loss, from tine, lose (see tine), + -sel, a formative seen in G. wechsel, schicksal, etc.
  2. Early modern English also tinsell, tinsil, tinsille (also tinsey); by apheresis from etincelle, from Old French estincelle, French étincelle, spark, sparkle, twinkle, flash, earlier *escintelle (?), from Latin scintilla, spark, flash: see scintilla.
  3. from tinsel, n.
 

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/ˈtɪnsɛl/
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