gewgaw

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Related to gewgaw: thingummy

gew·gaw

(gyo͞o′gô′, go͞o′-) also gee·gaw (jē′-, gē′-)

A decorative trinket; a bauble.

[Middle English giuegaue.]

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.

gewgaw

(ˈɡjuːɡɔː; ˈɡuː-)

a showy but valueless trinket

adj

showy and valueless; gaudy

[C15: of unknown origin]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

gew•gaw

(ˈgyu gɔ, ˈgu-)

n.

something gaudy and useless; trinket; bauble.

[1175–1225; Middle English giuegaue; gradational compound of uncertain orig.]

gew′gawed, adj.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

gewgaw - cheap showy jewelry or ornament on clothing

fallal, gaud, trinket, bangle, bauble, novelty

adornment - a decoration of color or interest that is added to relieve plainness

trinketry - trinkets and other ornaments of dress collectively

gewgaw

noun

A small showy article:

bauble, bibelot, gimcrack, knickknack, novelty, toy, trifle, trinket, whatnot.

Translations

ninnolo

gewgaw

(o.f.) [ˈgjuːgɔː] N → baratija f

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

gewgaw

n → protziges, wertloses Schmuckstück; (fig) → Lappalie f, → Kleinigkeit f

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

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References in classic literature ?

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."

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Any little absurd gewgaw or gimcrack they had they disposed in such a way as to make it attract attention most readily.

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Underneath were the names of the plutocrats who had subscribed for this national gewgaw, and I fell to wondering where their L8,000 came in, while Raffles devoured his two-penny guide-book as greedily as a school-girl with a zeal for culture.

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Of course, I am referring only to these accursed gewgaws, to these frills and fripperies!

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"Two others oped their iron jaws, And waved their children-stealing paws; There sat their children in gewgaws; By stinting negroes' backs and maws, They kept up heavenly union.

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And there's a lot o' foolish women in fine clothes, with gewgaws all up their arms and feathers on their heads, sitting near the judge: they've dressed themselves out in that way, one 'ud think, to be scarecrows and warnings against any man ever meddling with a woman again.

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The sheriffs with their great chains and nosegays, other civic gewgaws and monsters, criers, ushers, a great gallery full of people - a large theatrical audience - looked on, as the two-and-thirty and the Judge were solemnly confronted.

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She'd care little for money or gewgaws, but she'd break her heart to see her old father - come to this - broken down - worthless

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They have audaciously adjusted, in the name of "good taste," upon the wounds of gothic architecture, their miserable gewgaws of a day, their ribbons of marble, their pompons of metal, a veritable leprosy of egg-shaped ornaments, volutes, whorls, draperies, garlands, fringes, stone flames, bronze clouds, pudgy cupids, chubby- cheeked cherubim, which begin to devour the face of art in the oratory of Catherine de Medicis, and cause it to expire, two centuries later, tortured and grimacing, in the boudoir of the Dubarry.

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"Now to this place there came some cunning traders from Phoenicia (for the Phoenicians are great mariners) in a ship which they had freighted with gewgaws of all kinds.

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Our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labour and put brains and skill into the common occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful.

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'"There is little need," said the monk, with a meaning look, "to fritter away the time in gewgaws which shall raise up the pale ghosts of hopes of early years.