gaudy

gaudy
gaudy, tawdry, garish, flashy, meretricious are comparable when meaning vulgar or cheap in its showiness.
Something is gaudy which uses gay colors and conspicuous ornaments or ornamentation lavishly, ostentatiously, and tastelessly
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gaudy floral prints

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false eloquence, like the prismatic glass, its gaudy colors spreads on ev'ry place— Pope

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another attendant, gaudy with jingling chains and brass buttons, led us along a corridor— Kenneth Roberts

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Something is tawdry which is not only gaudy but cheap and sleazy
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beneath the lamp her tawdry ribbons glare— Gay

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a fancy . . . fruitful, yet not wanton, and gay without being tawdryCowper

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he saw nothing else; the tawdry scenery, the soiled cotton velvet and flimsy crumpled satin, the reek of vulgarity, never touched his innocent mind— Deland

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Something is garish which is distressingly or offensively bright
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hide me from day's garish eye—Milton

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for this week he would produce a bunch [of flowers] as garish as a gypsy, all blue and purple and orange, but next week a bunch discreet as a pastel, all rose and gray with a dash of yellow— SackvilleWest

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Something is flashy which dazzles for a moment but then reveals itself as shallow or vulgar display
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Tom Paine was considered for the time as a Tom Fool to him, Paley an old woman, Edmund Burke a flashy sophist— Hazlitt

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the flashy rich boy in public school, buying toadyism— La Farge

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"what the public wants" is being translated into the flashy, the gadgety, the spectacular— Loewy}}

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Something is meretricious which allures by false or deceitful show (as of worth, value, or brilliancy)
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the jewels in the crisped hair, the diadem on the polished brow, are thought meretricious, theatrical, vulgar— Hazlitt

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the false taste, the showy and meretricious element . . . invading the social life of the period and supplanting the severe elegance, the instinctive grace of the eighteenth century— Binyon

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if a writer's attitude toward his characters and his scene is as vulgar as a showman's, as mercenary as an auctioneer's, vulgar and meretricious will his product for ever remain— Cather

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Analogous words: *showy, pretentious, ostentatious: vulgar, *coarse, gross: resplendent, gorgeous (see SPLENDID)
Antonyms: quiet (in taste or style)
Contrasted words: modest, *chaste, decent, pure

New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.

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  • Gaudy — ist: Jezioro Gaudy, ein See in Polen Gaudy ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Adolf Gaudy (1872–1956), Schweizer Kirchenarchitekt Alice von Gaudy (1863–1929), deutsche Dichterin Franz von Gaudy (1800–1840), deutscher Dichter und Novellist… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Gaudy — or Gaudie [ [http://www.ausa.org.uk/student media/gaudie Aberdeen University Students Association GAUDIE ] ] (from the Latin, gaudium , meaning enjoyment or merry making ) is a term used typical to reflect student life in a number of the ancient… …   Wikipedia

  • Gaudy — Gaud y, a. [Compar. {Gaudier}; superl. {Gauidiest}.] 1. Ostentatiously fine; showy; gay, but tawdry or meretricious. [1913 Webster] Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy. Shak. [1913 Webster] 2. Gay;… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • gaudy — (adj.) showy, tastelessly rich, 1580s, probably ultimately from M.E. gaudi large, ornamental bead in a rosary (early 14c.); but there is a parallel sense of gaudy as full of trickery (1520s), from M.E. gaud deception, trick, from gaudi a jest,… …   Etymology dictionary

  • Gaudy — Gaud y, n. A feast or festival; called also {gaud day} and {gaudy day}. [Oxford Univ.] Conybeare. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Gaudy — Gaudy, Franz Bernhard Heinrich Wilhelm, Freiherr von, Dichter und Novellist, geb. 19. April 1800 in Frankfurt a. O. als Sprößling einer aus Schottland stammenden Familie, gest. 6. Febr. 1840 in Berlin, erhielt seine Bildung im College français zu …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Gaudy —   [ di], Franz Freiherr von, Schriftsteller, * Frankfurt (Oder) 19. 4. 1800, ✝ Berlin 5. 2. 1840; stammte väterlicherseits aus einer schottischen Familie, war 1818 33 Offizier und lebte dann als freier Schriftsteller, mit A. von Chamisso und W.… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • gaudy — gaudy; gaudy·ware; …   English syllables

  • Gaudy — Gaud y, n.; pl. {Gaudies} [See {Gaud}, n.] One of the large beads in the rosary at which the paternoster is recited. [Obs.] Gower. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Gaudy — Gaudy, 1) Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst v. G., geb. den 23. Aug. 1725 in Spandau, trat, nachdem er seine Studien auf der Universität Königsberg beendet hatte, 1744 als Cadet der Garde in die preußische Armee. 1757 war er als Hauptmann u. Flügeladjutant …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

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