bric-a-brac


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bric-a-brac

 (brĭk′ə-brăk′)
n.
Small, usually ornamental objects valued for their antiquity, rarity, originality, or sentimental associations.
[French bric-à-brac, expressive of confusion.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bric-a-brac

(ˈbrɪkəˌbræk)
n
miscellaneous small objects, esp furniture and curios, kept because they are ornamental or rare
[C19: from French; phrase based on bric piece]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

bric-a-brac

or bric-à-brac

(ˈbrɪk əˌbræk)

n. (used with a sing. or pl. v.)
miscellaneous small articles collected for their decorative or other interest; knickknacks.
[1830–40; < French, Middle French]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.bric-a-brac - miscellaneous curios
knickknackery, nicknack, whatnot, knickknack
curio, curiosity, oddment, peculiarity, rarity, oddity - something unusual -- perhaps worthy of collecting
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

bric-a-brac

noun knick-knacks, ornaments, trinkets, baubles, odds and ends, curios, stuff, miscellany, objets d'art (French), gewgaws, bibelots, kickshaws, objects of virtu The rooms are choked with bric-a-brac.
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
Translations

bric-à-brac

[ˈbrɪkəbræk] N (no pl) → chucherías fpl, curiosidades fpl
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

bric-a-brac

[ˈbrɪkəbræk] n → bric-à-brac m
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

bric-a-brac

n → Nippes m, → Nippsachen pl
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

bric-a-brac

[ˈbrɪkəˌbræk] n no pl → bric-à-brac m inv
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
References in classic literature ?
Many people say that for a male person, bric-a-brac hunting is about as robust a business as making doll-clothes, or decorating Japanese pots with decalcomanie butterflies would be, and these people fling mud at the elegant Englishman, Byng, who wrote a book called THE BRIC-A-BRAC HUNTER, and make fun of him for chasing around after what they choose to call "his despicable trifles"; and for "gushing" over these trifles; and for exhibiting his "deep infantile delight" in what they call his "tuppenny collection of beggarly trivialities"; and for beginning his book with a picture of himself seated, in a "sappy, self-complacent attitude, in the midst of his poor little ridiculous bric-a-brac junk shop."
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She was carrying an enormous parcel that might have been a bird-cage wrapped in brown paper, and she took it into a bric-a-brac shop and came out without it.
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Among the bric-a-brac of my heart I still cherish some of those little slips of paper with which we made international love--question and answer.
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"For the king, whose name is Roquat of the Rocks, owns a splendid palace underneath the great mountain which is at the north end of this kingdom, and he has transformed the queen and her children into ornaments and bric-a-brac with which to decorate his rooms."
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There was no enviable bric-a-brac, with its provoking legend of cheapness, in the room in which I had seen her.
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"Yes: I think he is a good fellow: rather miscellaneous and bric-a-brac, but likable."
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I said I had been having a general jail-delivery at Camelot and among neighboring castles, and with her permission I would like to examine her collection, her bric-a-brac -- that is to say, her prison- ers.
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It is like a bric-a-brac shop, all monsters and dust, with everything priced above its proper value.
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The wide rooms seemed too narrow for his rolling gait, and to himself he was in terror lest his broad shoulders should collide with the doorways or sweep the bric-a-brac from the low mantel.
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But its oddities were of a different cast from those of our hero's gilded saloons on the Boulevard Haussmann: the place was low, dusky, contracted, and crowded with curious bric-a-brac. Bellegarde, penniless patrician as he was, was an insatiable collector, and his walls were covered with rusty arms and ancient panels and platters, his doorways draped in faded tapestries, his floors muffled in the skins of beasts.
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* In those days it was still the custom to fill the living rooms with bric-a-brac. They had not discovered simplicity of living.
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Clothes, books and toys, bric-a-brac plus raffle and cake stall.
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