gimcrackery
Americannoun
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cheap, showy, useless trifles, ornaments, trinkets, etc.
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obvious or contrived effects, especially in art, music, literature, etc.
Etymology
Origin of gimcrackery
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.
Prague is emerging from the pandemic with less touristic gimcrackery and more local flavor.
From New York Times • Aug. 1, 2022
But Brock Yates, the curmudgeonly columnist for Car and Driver, questions the demand for this technological gimcrackery by suggesting that consumers can be dumb about smart devices.
From Time Magazine Archive
The singsong chant of an auctioneer rang through the gilded, tapestried halls of Cairo's Kubbeh Palace last week, sounding the end of one of the most expensive and generally useless collections of gimcrackery ever assembled.
From Time Magazine Archive
"It eliminates all show business gimcrackery and focuses attention on the music."
From Time Magazine Archive
In effect, then, the foundation of the hat appeared to be a black straw, with a wide, straight brim, the trimming being a gimcrackery sort of material whose name for the moment has escaped me.
From The Gates of Chance by Sutphen, Van Tassel
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.
