adjective
Synonym Usage
See gaudy 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of garish
1535–45; earlier gaurish, perhaps equivalent to obsolete gaure “to stare” ( Middle English gauren, from Old Norse ) + -ish 1
Explanation
Use the adjective garish to describe something that is overly vivid, bright, showy, and in bad taste — like the DJ's garish outfit that is a flashback to the disco era. Garish comes to English from the Old Norse word gaurr, meaning "rough fellow." It is often used to describe colors, clothing, decorations, and other things that can be elegant and tasteful. Because the word connotes bad taste, however, it is rarely used in a complimentary way. If you say to your friend, "I like your garish hair and makeup," she is not likely to take it well, unless, of course, you are going to a 70s flashback party.
Vocabulary lists containing garish
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Romeo and Juliet
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For Grilled Cheese Day, Vocab with a Twist
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Garish sheeny purples, jelly bean blues and lots of acid color mixed with gold chains, thick collars and caps worn to the side.
From Seattle Times • Jan. 20, 2022
Garish and eccentric, Eilat was nothing like anything we’d seen elsewhere in Israel.
From New York Times • Oct. 25, 2021
They are hoping for a “Proper, Presentable Daughter”; “nothing too Madcap or Garish or Wacky” is allowed in their sleepy neighborhood.
From The New Yorker • Jun. 25, 2019
Garish and showy and heavy handed in his taste, he was, to the bone, Elvis himselvis, the kid from small-town Mississippi made inordinately good.
From Time • Jul. 22, 2017
At such times, shall he not better turn to those greater souls, rather than to the external, the immediate, and the "Garish Day"?
From Essays Before a Sonata by Ives, Charles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
