frippery

American  

[frip-uh-ree] / ˈfrɪp ə ri /

noun

plural

fripperies

1. finery in dress, especially when showy, gaudy, or the like.

2. empty display; ostentation.

3. gewgaws; trifles.

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frippery British  

/ ˈfrɪpərɪ /

noun

1. ornate or showy clothing or adornment

2. showiness; ostentation

3. unimportant considerations; trifles; trivia

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Etymology

Origin of frippery

1560–70; < French friperie, Old French freperie, equivalent to frepe rag + -erie -ery

Example Sentences

That’s what the fashion historian James Laver named the period during and immediately following the French Revolution, which made wearing aristocratic fripperies both dangerous and passé.

From The Wall Street Journal

No one in the film comments on any of the frippery.

From Los Angeles Times

Brushing ahead all that geeky frippery, though, and what’s plainest about that scene is how unsettling it is.

From Salon

The more stylized approaches of traditional “Streetcar” revivals aren’t just frippery.

From Los Angeles Times

Belafonte turned the famous into folks, mixing the frippery of the format with the gravitas of the moment.

From New York Times