gimcrack
Americannoun
adjective
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of gimcrack
1325–75 for earlier sense; Middle English gib ( e ) crake; compare Middle English gibben to waver (< Old French giber to shake)
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.
To call this tourist fare is merely to say that its appeal is generic and, yes, a bit gimcrack.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2018
The designer Vicki Mortimer has created a set that feels like a gimcrack warehouse, full of old ladders and lights and puppet-stage-like window frames.
From New York Times ● Aug. 16, 2016
Beneath the gimcrack pretext, one simple reason: The court didn’t like the law.
From Slate ● Jun. 30, 2015
The central Seoul district of Itaewon, once a gimcrack preserve of GIs and expatriates, is now awash in restaurants that give new meaning to the word “fusion” — starting with their owners.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 13, 2015
As a rule, they are of a flimsy and gimcrack order of architecture.
From The Turkish Bath Its Design and Construction by Robert Owen Allsop
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.
