GAUDY (gaudier, gaudiest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: gaudier    , gaudiest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does gaudy mean? 

• GAUDY (noun)
  The noun GAUDY has 1 sense:

1. (Britain) a celebratory reunion feast or entertainment held a college

  Familiarity information: GAUDY used as a noun is very rare.

• GAUDY (adjective)
  The adjective GAUDY has 2 senses:

1. tastelessly showy

2. (used especially of clothes) marked by conspicuous display

  Familiarity information: GAUDY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GAUDY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(Britain) a celebratory reunion feast or entertainment held a college

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("gaudy" is a kind of...):

banquet; feast (a ceremonial dinner party for many people)

Domain region:

Britain; Great Britain; U.K.; UK; United Kingdom; United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; 'Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom)

• GAUDY (adjective)

Comparative: gaudier   
Superlative: gaudiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Tastelessly showy

Synonyms:

brassy; cheap; flash; flashy; garish; gaudy; gimcrack; loud; meretricious; tacky; tatty; tawdry; trashy

Context example:

tawdry ornaments

Similar:

tasteless (lacking aesthetic or social taste)

Derivation:

gaud (cheap showy jewelry or ornament on clothing)

gaudiness (strident color or excessive ornamentation)

gaudiness (tasteless showiness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(used especially of clothes) marked by conspicuous display

Synonyms:

flashy; gaudy; jazzy; showy; sporty

Similar:

colorful; colourful (striking in variety and interest)

Derivation:

gaudiness (strident color or excessive ornamentation)

gaudiness (tasteless showiness)

 Context examples 

This gaudy relationship did him little good at school.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The table was flanked on one side by a gaudy bureau, manufactured for profit and not for service, the thin veneer of which was shed day by day.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune of its proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine; with less of splendour, and more real elegance, than the furniture of Rosings.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The last swimmers have come in from the beach now and are dressing upstairs; the cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive, and already the halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colors and hair shorn in strange new ways and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)