gaudy
1 Americannoun
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:
The fuss over the gaudy lawn sculpture seemed to delight the President, who suggested he’d maybe make it permanent.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 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
It'll be long and tiresome in Washington on Friday, it's got all the potential to be gaudy and embarrassing, uneasy on the eyes and the ears.
From BBC ● Dec. 5, 2025
I put on my gaudy red finery, and was driven with Shusgis to the supper-party in his chauffeured private car.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
The days on which they occur are called gaudies or gaudy days.
From A Collection of College Words and Customs by Hall, Benjamin Homer
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 Henley, William Ernest
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 Black, Robert
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
There are other pitchers who have gaudier numbers, including Dodger teammate Tony Gonsolin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2022
The gaudier semifinal between brawny 12-1 teams, envisioned as a trading of bruises late into the night, didn’t take up much of your night or chew up any of your nerves.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 1, 2022
The numbers have become gaudier as the season has gone on—no twenty-year-old in history has done what he’s been doing so far for a full season.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 26, 2019
But the Elizabethans loved gaudier methods; they liked highly decorative modes of expression, in prose no less than in verse.
From English Literature: Modern Home University Library of Modern Knowledge by Mair, G. H. (George Herbert)
Real money announces itself by being the gaudiest in any room.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2025
And that ring is not even considered the gaudiest.
From New York Times ● Nov. 3, 2021
One of baseball’s gaudiest players simply dropped his bat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2021
Nor did Harding envision what F. Scott Fitzgerald called “the greatest, gaudiest spree in history” — the Roaring Twenties.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 3, 2021
And here we are, at the center of the arc, trapped in the gaudiest, most valuable, and most improbable water wheel the world has ever seen.
From "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin
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.
