gaudy
1 American
noun
-
gaudies
plural
adjective
noun
Synonym Usage
Gaudy, flashy, garish, showy agree in the idea of conspicuousness and, often, bad taste. That which is gaudy challenges the eye, as by brilliant colors or evident cost, and is not in good taste: a gaudy hat. Flashy suggests insistent and vulgar display, in rather a sporty manner: a flashy necktie. Garish suggests a glaring brightness, or crude vividness of color, and too much ornamentation: garish decorations. Showy applies to that which is strikingly conspicuous, but not necessarily offensive to good taste: a garden of showy flowers; a showy dress.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of gaudy1
First recorded in 1520–30; originally attributive use of gaudy 2 ( def. ); later taken as a derivative of gaud ( def. )
Origin of gaudy2
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin gaudium joy, delight
Explanation
Something that's gaudy is showy, bright and definitely tacky. So think twice about that gaudy rainbow-colored suit and shiny gold shoes ensemble. Gaudy is an adjective that means "ostentatious" — in other words, flashy and in your face, and not in a good way. Someone in a gaudy outfit is probably trying too hard to be cool and stylish. Gaudy evolved from the Middle English gaud “deception, trick” in the 1520’s. That word, in turn, came from gaudi, used to describe a “large, ornamental bead in a rosary.”
Vocabulary lists containing gaudy
List 6
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Fast Food Nation
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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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:
Across the courtyard in another workshop a handful of PoWs are making artificial Christmas trees, gaudy baubles strung from their machines.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Some projects have been viewed as gaudy or unnecessary, while others have been applauded by local residents.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
The style had roots in the late 18th century, when France’s Directoire era represented a retreat from gaudy Rococo maximalism and an embrace of clean, froth-free lines.
From Salon ● Jun. 12, 2026
If you think of late-career Elvis Presley as only a plump and gaudy Las Vegas crooner slinging schlock in the 1970s, you’re about to get all shook up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026
“The guys are big, muscular, wear gaudy jewelry and belt buckles big enough to eat their lunch off of.”
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
Marshal," said he to Chabannes, "we are told that over the Po yonder is Sir Prosper Colonna, with two thousand horse, in a town called Villafranca, apprehending nought and thinking of nought but gaudies.
From A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 4 by Robert Black
The days on which they occur are called gaudies or gaudy days.
From A Collection of College Words and Customs by Benjamin Homer Hall
Crocus and daffodil and violet, Pink, primrose, valley-lily, clove-carnation, Red rose and white rose, wall-flower, mignonette, The daisies all—these be her recreation, Her gaudies these!
From Hawthorn and Lavender with Other Verses by William Ernest Henley
That’s because playing on the same defensive line might clear the biggest roadblock that they have faced stopping them from putting up even gaudier numbers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
It does not seek the new, but demands endless repetition of the same themes, merely with greater elaboration, gaudier technical effects and greater expense.
From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2025
As the plot gathers steam and accelerates, Johnson again offers a blunt evisceration of the privileged and powerful, only with fancier cocktails, showier bric-a-brac and gaudier outfits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2022
It drew four best drama series Emmy nods, the sole broadcast nominee in recent years amid grander and gaudier competition such as Netflix’s “The Crown,” HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
From Seattle Times ● May 18, 2022
I collect titles as an entomologist does butterflies," he is recorded to have said: "and I find the gaudier ones the cheapest.
From Gallantry Dizain des Fetes Galantes by James Branch Cabell
“The Language of Butterflies” is equal parts an ode to the gaudiest of insects—a tribute to butterflies’ beauty, behavior and natural history—and to the scientists and enthusiasts dazzled by them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Real money announces itself by being the gaudiest in any room.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2025
America came out of the horrific influenza pandemic more than a century ago, then embarked on what F. Scott Fitzgerald called “the greatest, gaudiest spree in history.”
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 3, 2022
It wasn’t the day’s gaudiest highlight, but to Prunty it laid bare the qualities that only the most daring passers possess.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 12, 2022
She chose the gaudiest one there—four-inch-high ballet dancers in purple tutus, their pink legs pirouetting on a greenish four- in-hand.
From "The Great Gilly Hopkins" by Katherine Paterson
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.
