bibelot
Americannoun
noun
-
an attractive or curious trinket
-
a miniature book
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bibelot
1870–75; < French, equivalent to bibel- (expressive formation akin to bauble ) + -ot noun suffix
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.
See Examples For:
Gewgaw, a shiny trinket Bon Voyage A trinket or a knickknack, an ornament, a kickshaw, a frippery, a gimcrack, a bibelot, a gewgaw .
From Washington Post ● Aug. 12, 2021
He finds it painful to see this memento of colonialism and bondage turned into an amusing bibelot, but he also loves the woman in whose household it is displayed.
From New York Times ● Oct. 14, 2019
Serotonin is a tiny molecule, a bibelot built of just 10 carbon atoms, a dozen hydrogens, two nitrogens and a single oxygen.
From New York Times ● May 2, 2011
To top it off, an extra little bibelot has now come Deenie's way.
From Time Magazine Archive
She was terribly hurt; in her heart she had always feared her husband regarded her as a bibelot.
From The Twelfth Hour by Leverson, Ada
Do you need to hide some cash, jewelry or other bibelots that have sentimental value?
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 22, 2024
Norma has a weakness for massive jewelry, and gifts Joe with gold bibelots.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2022
The stage at the New Ohio Theater is a rhapsody in white, with billowing, diaphanous curtains and small columns on which cunning little bibelots are perched.
From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 2013
There are no animal acts either, just a furry boar's head mounted above shelves handsomely arrayed with books and bibelots.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 16, 2012
Even in the happiest times he’d made fun of my California accent, my secondhand overcoat and my room barren of tasteful bibelots, but in such an ingenuous way I couldn’t possibly do anything but laugh.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
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.
