Adjacent Words

Gaudy definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

GAUD'Y, a. Showy; splendid; gay.
A goldfinch there I saw, with gaudy pride
Of painted plumes--
1. Ostentatiously fine; gay beyond the simplicity of nature or good taste.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy.
GAUD'Y, n. A feast or festival; a word in the university.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: tastelessly showy; "a flash car"; "a flashy ring"; "garish colors"; "a gaudy costume"; "loud sport shirts"; "a meretricious yet stylish book"; "tawdry ornaments" [syn: brassy, cheap, flash, flashy, garish, gaudy, gimcrack, loud, meretricious, tacky, tatty, tawdry, trashy]
2: (used especially of clothes) marked by conspicuous display [syn: flashy, gaudy, jazzy, showy, sporty] n
1: (Britain) a celebratory reunion feast or entertainment held a college

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective (gaudier; -est) Date: 1582 1. ostentatiously or tastelessly ornamented 2. marked by extravagance or sometimes tasteless showiness ; outlandish <gaudy lies> <gaudy claims>; also exceptional <a gaudy batting average> • gaudily adverb • gaudiness noun Synonyms: gaudy, tawdry, garish, flashy, meretricious mean vulgarly or cheaply showy. gaudy implies a tasteless use of overly bright, often clashing colors or excessive ornamentation <circus performers in gaudy costumes>. tawdry applies to what is at once gaudy and cheap and sleazy <tawdry saloons>. garish describes what is distressingly or offensively bright <garish neon signs>. flashy implies an effect of brilliance quickly and easily seen to be shallow or vulgar <a flashy nightclub act>. meretricious stresses falsity and may describe a tawdry show that beckons with a false allure or promise <a meretricious wasteland of casinos and bars>. II. noun (plural gaudies) Etymology: probably from Latin gaudium joy — more at joy Date: 1651 a feast or entertainment especially in the form of an annual college dinner at a British university

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. adj. (gaudier, gaudiest) tastelessly or extravagantly bright or showy. Derivatives: gaudily adv. gaudiness n. Etymology: prob. f. GAUD + -Y(1) 2. n. (pl. -ies) Brit. an annual feast or entertainment, esp. a college dinner for old members etc. Etymology: L gaudium joy or gaude imper. of gaudere rejoice

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Gaudy Gaud"y, a. [Compar. Gaudier; superl. Gauidiest.] 1. Ostentatiously fine; showy; gay, but tawdry or meretricious. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy. --Shak. 2. Gay; merry; festal. --Tennyson. Let's have one other gaudy night. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Gaudy Gaud"y, n. A feast or festival; -- called also gaud-day and gaudy day. [Oxford Univ.] --Conybeare.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(gaudier, gaudiest) If something is gaudy, it is very brightly-coloured and showy. ...her gaudy orange-and-purple floral hat. = garish ADJ [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Flaunting, garish, tawdry, glittering, tinsel, over-decorated, flashy, showy, loud (colloq.).

Moby Thesaurus

Gongoresque, Johnsonian, affected, bedizened, beggarly, beneath contempt, big-sounding, blatant, blinding, brazen, brazenfaced, brummagem, cheap, cheesy, chintzy, coarse, colorful, common, contemptible, convoluted, crass, crude, crummy, declamatory, despicable, earthy, elevated, euphuistic, extravagant, fake, flagrant, flamboyant, flaming, flaring, flashy, flaunting, florid, fulsome, garish, gimcrack, gimcracky, glaring, gorgeous, grandiloquent, grandiose, grandisonant, gross, high-flowing, high-flown, high-flying, high-sounding, highfalutin, honky-tonk, inkhorn, labyrinthine, lexiphanic, lofty, loud, lurid, magniloquent, mean, meretricious, miserable, obscene, obtrusive, orotund, ostentatious, overbright, overdone, overelaborate, overinvolved, overwrought, paltry, pathetic, pedantic, phony, pitiable, pitiful, pompous, poor, pretentious, raffish, raw, rhetorical, ribald, rough, rubbishy, rude, sad, screaming, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, scuzzy, sensational, sensationalistic, sententious, shabby, sham, shameless, shoddy, showy, shrieking, sonorous, sorry, spectacular, stilted, tacky, tall, tasteless, tatty, tawdry, tinsel, tinselly, tortuous, trashy, trumpery, two-for-a-cent, two-for-a-penny, twopenny, twopenny-halfpenny, valueless, vile, vulgar, worthless, wretched