frippery

[frip-uh-ree]

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noun, plural frip·per·ies.

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

empty display; ostentation.

gewgaws; trifles.

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. 2019

Related Words for frippery

toy, frill, ornament, trinket, ostentation, decoration, pretentiousness, adornment, knickknack, bauble, showiness, gaudiness, tawdriness, meretriciousness, fussiness, fanciness, fandangle

Examples from the Web for frippery

Historical Examples of frippery

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.
The Magnificent Montez
Horace Wyndham
No, but like them I have learnt to rate all this frippery at its worth!
The Pillars of the House, Vol. II (of 2)
Charlotte M. Yonge
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.
A Counterfeit Presentment and The Parlour Car
William Dean Howells

British Dictionary definitions for frippery

frippery

noun plural -peries

ornate or showy clothing or adornment

showiness; ostentation

unimportant considerations; trifles; trivia

Word Origin for frippery

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

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.