| English Dictionary |
SHOWY (showier, showiest)
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
, showiest Dictionary entry overview: What does showy mean?
• SHOWY (adjective)
The adjective SHOWY has 4 senses:
1. marked by ostentation but often tasteless
2. displaying brilliance and virtuosity
3. (used especially of clothes) marked by conspicuous display
4. superficially attractive and stylish; suggesting wealth or expense
Familiarity information: SHOWY used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
| Declension: comparative and superlative |
Superlative: showiest
Sense 1
Meaning:
Marked by ostentation but often tasteless
Synonyms:
flamboyant; showy; splashy
Context example:
a splashy half-page ad
Similar:
ostentatious; pretentious (intended to attract notice and impress others)
Derivation:
show (pretending that something is the case in order to make a good impression)
showiness (extravagant elaborateness)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Displaying brilliance and virtuosity
Similar:
theatrical (suited to or characteristic of the stage or theater)
Derivation:
show (the act of publicly exhibiting or entertaining)
showiness (extravagant elaborateness)
Sense 3
Meaning:
(used especially of clothes) marked by conspicuous display
Synonyms:
flashy; gaudy; jazzy; showy; sporty
Similar:
colorful; colourful (striking in variety and interest)
Derivation:
showiness (extravagant elaborateness)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Superficially attractive and stylish; suggesting wealth or expense
Synonyms:
glossy; showy
Context example:
a glossy TV series
Similar:
attractive (pleasing to the eye or mind especially through beauty or charm)
Context examples
Mrs. Colonel Dent was less showy; but, I thought, more lady-like.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
A city house in a fashionable street, not so showy as our big houses, but twice as comfortable and full of solid luxury, such as English people believe in.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
The one was an elderly man, with a strong, deep-lined, heavy-eyed face; the other a dashing young fellow, whose bright, smiling expression and showy dress were in strange contrast with the business which had brought us there.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She was very showy, but she was not genuine: she had a fine person, many brilliant attainments; but her mind was poor, her heart barren by nature: nothing bloomed spontaneously on that soil; no unforced natural fruit delighted by its freshness.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
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