frippery
Americannoun
-
fripperies
plural
-
finery in dress, especially when showy, gaudy, or the like.
-
empty display; ostentation.
-
gewgaws; trifles.
noun
-
ornate or showy clothing or adornment
-
showiness; ostentation
-
unimportant considerations; trifles; trivia
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of frippery
1560–70; < French friperie, Old French freperie, equivalent to frepe rag + -erie -ery
Explanation
Frippery is something showy but trivial. You might think you need a feather boa, but your sister might say it’s just frippery. Frippery comes from the French word friperie for "old clothes,” and originally, frippery referred to old, trashy and maybe even tawdry clothes. From there, the word spread to include other kinds of things that aren't worth much. Often, frippery refers to nonsense, or language that is empty and just a lot of hot air. Use this word when you want to say something is showy but ultimately empty of value.
Vocabulary lists containing frippery
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" by Katherine Anne Porter
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
The Devil in the White City
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Brushing ahead all that geeky frippery, though, and what’s plainest about that scene is how unsettling it is.
From Salon ● Jan. 18, 2025
Like even the lousiest Regency-era frippery, it has its intermittent pleasures, most of them visual.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2022
This is a crock, dressed up in legal frippery.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 18, 2022
She refuses to treat them as frippery or dainty delicacies: “They can be the main ingredient.”
From New York Times ● Sep. 6, 2021
He reiterated his insistence that in Chicago “simplicity and reserve will be practiced and petty effects and frippery avoided.”
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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 ● Nov. 28, 2025
The sums of money being blown on fripperies are staggering.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 16, 2022
The impression, as usual with him, was of an artist who dispenses with formalities and fripperies to focus — with relaxation but also intense seriousness — on the music.
From New York Times ● Jan. 14, 2022
And, while many of us wear sombre hues and classic shapes in our everyday wardrobes, the temptation to experiment with the fripperies beneath has seduced us, with bold colour choices and fashion-forward styles proving popular.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 16, 2017
Lavinia’s room; and strewed about it things he had never seen before—stays, kerchiefs, patchboxes, ribbons, fripperies.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
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.
