variants
also geegaw
as in bauble
a small object displayed for its attractiveness or interest
had a shelf devoted just to gewgaws featuring his favorite team's mascot
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Recent Examples of gewgaw
Words that foiled spellers included chrysal, athanor, cloxacillin, heliconius, torticollis, platylepadid and gewgaw, and at one point judges had to review a video replay to determine whether a speller said the letter I or Y.
—
New York Times, 9 July 2021
And how nice to see Cynthia Erivo — to really see the woman and not have her overwhelmed by an elaborate mishmash of ruffles and gewgaws.
—Washington Post, 6 Jan. 2020
Loaded to the gills with all-wheel drive, digital gewgaws and two-tone leather interior, my racy coupe stickered for $62,000 — a healthy $20,000 cheaper than a comparable BMW M4 coupe.
—Tribune News Service, cleveland, 28 Dec. 2019
Giveaways are a universal phenomenon, but Silicon Valley has made free gewgaws and gadgets an integral part of its culture.
—Owen Thomas, SFChronicle.com, 24 July 2019
The nihilistic gewgaw, vacuous and vulgar, instead embodies the mythos that can be manufactured in a crude market-culture that primarily values art as a luxury asset.
—Los Angeles Times, 23 July 2019
Graphics: Your choice of desktop-class RTX 2060, 2070, or 2080
Display: Your choice of four 17.3-inch FHD (1920x1080) displays, with or without touch, with or without gewgaws like Tobii eye-tracking.
—Melissa Riofrio, PCWorld, 8 Jan. 2019
Bookstores should be designed to bring us closer together, not modeled after an open prairie dotted with books and assorted gewgaws — puzzles, Lego kits, Polaroid cameras.
—John Warner, chicagotribune.com, 6 June 2018
Gary Oldman, Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney have all won Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards and countless other prizes and gewgaws in the weeks leading up to the Oscars.
—Glenn Whipp, latimes.com, 20 Feb. 2018
New York Times, 9 July 2021
And how nice to see Cynthia Erivo — to really see the woman and not have her overwhelmed by an elaborate mishmash of ruffles and gewgaws.
—Washington Post, 6 Jan. 2020
Loaded to the gills with all-wheel drive, digital gewgaws and two-tone leather interior, my racy coupe stickered for $62,000 — a healthy $20,000 cheaper than a comparable BMW M4 coupe.
—Tribune News Service, cleveland, 28 Dec. 2019
Giveaways are a universal phenomenon, but Silicon Valley has made free gewgaws and gadgets an integral part of its culture.
—Owen Thomas, SFChronicle.com, 24 July 2019
The nihilistic gewgaw, vacuous and vulgar, instead embodies the mythos that can be manufactured in a crude market-culture that primarily values art as a luxury asset.
—Los Angeles Times, 23 July 2019
Graphics: Your choice of desktop-class RTX 2060, 2070, or 2080
Display: Your choice of four 17.3-inch FHD (1920x1080) displays, with or without touch, with or without gewgaws like Tobii eye-tracking.
—Melissa Riofrio, PCWorld, 8 Jan. 2019
Bookstores should be designed to bring us closer together, not modeled after an open prairie dotted with books and assorted gewgaws — puzzles, Lego kits, Polaroid cameras.
—John Warner, chicagotribune.com, 6 June 2018
Gary Oldman, Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney have all won Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards and countless other prizes and gewgaws in the weeks leading up to the Oscars.
—Glenn Whipp, latimes.com, 20 Feb. 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for gewgaw
Noun
-
Inside the vast, white manufacturing hall, bags and bags of blood dangle overhead, suspended from a steel rail like macabre baubles.—
Nicola Twilley,
The New Yorker,
3 Feb. 2025
-
That includes this compact jewelry box that has a zip closure to keep your necklaces, earrings, and other baubles secure, as well as little pockets and slots for organization.—
Rylee Johnston,
Travel + Leisure,
3 May 2025
Noun
-
Of tchotchkes and trade policy When President Donald Trump initially closed the de minimis exemption for goods from Hong Kong and China earlier this year, chaos ensued.—
Elisabeth Buchwald,
CNN Money,
2 May 2025
-
There are six closets, plus a pantry and a pair of dinette hutches to flaunt your fragile tchotchkes, so kiss any monthly storage fees good-bye.—
Matthew Sedacca,
Curbed,
8 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Don’t fill your space with knickknacks from a one-stop shopping spree.—
Sophie Flaxman,
Better Homes & Gardens,
9 May 2025
-
It’s filled with racks of clothes, art and dinosaur knickknacks.—
Lia Picard,
New York Times,
3 May 2025
Noun
-
January is a multiplex clearance sale, littered with horror movies as gimcrack as the unsold toys wheeled out after the holidays.—
A.A. Dowd,
Chron,
5 Jan. 2023
-
The movie works hard to be a soulfully offbeat kiddie entertainment, an antidote to the gimcrack cynicism that has ruled too many cartoon-cutup-in-the-land-of-live-action Hollywood products.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
6 Oct. 2022
Noun
-
Many deciduous ornamentals including redbuds, forsythia, crabapples, fruit trees, quince azaleas and many others were not adversely affected by last summer’s drought and the cold, windy winter and frozen soils that followed.—
Pamm Cooper,
Hartford Courant,
10 May 2025
-
Companion plants for ornamentals such as hydrangeas are selected for aesthetic purposes.—
Kim Toscano,
Southern Living,
5 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Toss those little trinkets, stickers, and plastic toys.—
Patricia Shannon,
Southern Living,
16 May 2025
-
In an incisive observation of the way that an adult’s words can sometimes settle on a child with unusual weight, I-Jing absorbs this folk superstition without question, and begins to shoplift gaudy trinkets from surrounding market stalls, only ever using her evil left hand.—
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
15 May 2025
Noun
-
At the other end is the caricature, butt of flabby jokes, trussed in Las Vegas gaud, voice prostituted to a huge orchestra.—
San Diego Union-Tribune,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
16 Aug. 2019
-
Even its colors, silver and space gray, seem to have been chosen for their lack of gaud—no blingy gold model here.—
David Pierce,
WIRED,
3 Nov. 2017
Noun
-
The painting then remained in the artist’s possession and out of public sight until it was bought, in 1927, as a chic bibelot for a swanky members-only social club in London.—
Peter Schjeldahl,
The New Yorker,
9 May 2022
-
Bruno Magli’s luxe nappa leather bibelot upgrades the standard-issue, white plastic AirPods case.—
Kareem Rashed,
Robb Report,
16 Nov. 2021
Cite this Entry
“Gewgaw.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gewgaw. Accessed 25 May. 2025.
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