What does gewgaw mean?

Definitions for gewgaw
ˈgyu gɔ, ˈgu-gew·gaw

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word gewgaw.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. bangle, bauble, gaud, gewgaw, novelty, fallal, trinketnoun

    cheap showy jewelry or ornament on clothing

Wiktionary

  1. gewgawnoun

    A showy trifle, a toy; a showy trinket, ornament or decoration.

  2. gewgawadjective

    Showy; unreal; pretentious.

  3. Etymology: From earlier gugaw, gygaw, from givegove, a reduplication of give, geove, from giefu, geofu, geafu, from gebō. Compare gyligjöf. More at give.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Gewgawadjective

    Splendidly trifling; showy without value.

    Let him that would learn the happiness of religion, see the poor gewgaw happiness of Feliciano. William Law, Serious Call.

  2. Gewgawnoun

    A showy trifle; a toy; a bauble; a splendid plaything.

    Etymology: gegaf, Saxon; joyau, French.

    That metal they exchanged for the meanest trifles and gewgaws which the others could bring. George Abbot, Descr. of the World.

    Prefer that which providence has pronounced to be the staff of life, before a glittering gewgaw that has no other value than what vanity has set upon it. Roger L'Estrange, Fable 1.

    As children, when they throw one toy away,
    Straight a more foolish gewgaw comes in play. Dryden.

    A heavy gewgaw, call’d a crown, that spread
    About his temples, drown’d his narrow head,
    And would have crush’d it. John Dryden, Juvenal, Sat. 10.

    Some loose the bands
    Of ancient friendship, cancel nature’s laws
    For pageantry and tawdry gewgaws. Phillips.

    The first images were fans, silks, ribbands, laces, and many other gewgaws, which lay so thick that the whole heart was nothing else but a toyshop. Joseph Addison, Guard.

Wikipedia

  1. gewgaw

    Placeholder names are intentionally overly generic and ambiguous terms referring to things, places, or people, the names of which or of whom do not actually exist; are temporarily forgotten, or are unimportant; or in order to avoid stigmatization, or because they are unknowable and/or unpredictable given the context of their discussion; to de-emphasize in which event the precise specification thereof is otherwise impossible, or to deliberately expunge.Placeholder names for people are often terms referring to an average person or a predicted persona of a typical user.

ChatGPT

  1. gewgaw

    A gewgaw is a showy but worthless or useless object, often a small trinket or ornament. It is typically used in a pejorative or dismissive sense to refer to something that is all style and no substance.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Gewgawnoun

    a showy trifle; a toy; a splendid plaything; a pretty but worthless bauble

  2. Gewgawadjective

    showy; unreal; pretentious

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Gewgaw

    gū′gaw, n. a toy: a bauble.—adj. showy without value. [Acc. to Skeat, a reduplicated form of A.S. gifan, to give; preserved also in Northern Eng., as giff-gaff, interchange of intercourse.]

Matched Categories

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of gewgaw in Chaldean Numerology is: 6

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of gewgaw in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3


Translations for gewgaw

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

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"gewgaw." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/gewgaw>.

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