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frippery

[frip-uh-ree]
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noun, plural frip·per·ies.
  1. finery in dress, especially when showy, gaudy, or the like.
  2. empty display; ostentation.
  3. gewgaws; trifles.
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Origin of frippery

1560–70; < French friperie, Old French freperie, equivalent to frepe rag + -erie -ery
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for frippery

Historical Examples

  • The frippery of the island was dropped like the withes which bound Samson.

    The Cobbler In The Devil's Kitchen

    Mary Hartwell Catherwood

  • Frippery which would be discarded in England is often useful in India.

  • No, but like them I have learnt to rate all this frippery at its worth!

  • She was at Coronado again, in the sunshine and frippery of her sitting room.

    The Monster

    Edgar Saltus

  • This frippery has not only the girl's personality but her very spirit in it.

British Dictionary definitions for frippery

frippery

noun plural -peries
  1. ornate or showy clothing or adornment
  2. showiness; ostentation
  3. unimportant considerations; trifles; trivia
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Word Origin

C16: from Old French freperie, from frepe frill, rag, old garment, from Medieval Latin faluppa a straw, splinter, of obscure origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for frippery

n.

1560s, "old clothes, cast-off garments," from Middle French friperie "old clothes, an old clothes shop," from Old French freperie, feuperie "old rags, rubbish" (13c.), from frepe, feupe "fringe; rags, old clothes," from Late Latin faluppa "chip, splinter, straw, fiber." The notion is of "things worn down, clothes rubbed to rags." The ironic meaning "finery" (but with overtones of tawdriness) dates from 1630s.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper