Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Elaborately, heavily, and often excessively ornamented.
  • adjective Elaborate or showy, as in style.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Ornamented; artistically finished; ornamental; of an ornamental character: especially applied to an elaborate literary style.
  • Adorned; decorated.
  • To adorn; ornament.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb rare To adorn; to honor.
  • adjective Elaborately adorned or decorated; beautifully sumptuous.
  • adjective Finely finished, as a style of composition.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Elaborately ornamented, often to excess.
  • adjective Flashy, flowery or showy
  • verb obsolete To adorn; to honour.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective marked by elaborate rhetoric and elaborated with decorative details

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Latin ōrnātus, past participle of ōrnāre, to embellish; see ar- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin ornatus, past participle of ornare ("to equip, adorn").

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Examples

  • Awesome, a creepy-looking ex-Nazi Pope in ornate robes and a huge funny hat.

    Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog: 2009

  • The modern-meets-sultry pumps and flats in ornate silk patterns could be worn with a silk qipao, or form-fitting dress.

    The Bling Dynasty 2010

  • Rich in ornate mosques, Islamic tombs, cave churches, centuries old houses carved in the limestone cliffs, the entire site will be inundated.

    Seuthopolis 2007

  • Examples (N.B. big images): "Head study", a very nice studio portrait of an unnamed red-haired lady; Kush-Beggi (Minister of the Interior) of Bukhara, in ornate robes on an almost as ornate carpet; the riverside city of Vitebsk; and a "Compound" steam engine with a Schmidt super-heater.

    Archive 2004-01-01 Ray Girvan 2004

  • Examples (N.B. big images): "Head study", a very nice studio portrait of an unnamed red-haired lady; Kush-Beggi (Minister of the Interior) of Bukhara, in ornate robes on an almost as ornate carpet; the riverside city of Vitebsk; and a "Compound" steam engine with a Schmidt super-heater.

    Pre-WW1 and WW1 photos Ray Girvan 2004

  • But also on the Greek Parnassus of that time sat the same connoisseurs of degeneration who, in ornate words, declared their pessimistic conviction that nothing in this world was worth anything except their ability to express perfectly this very thought.

    Nobel Prize in Literature 1979 - Presentation Speech 1979

  • "Missing Soldiers Office," it read in ornate gold lettering on a black background. "3rd.

    Clara Barton's D.C. home and office may be converted into museum Michael E. Ruane 2010

  • What Ms. Surno describes as an "ornate, lush, gorgeous orgy" is a 29-minute phantasmagoria.

    Making Beautiful Music With Film Steve Dollar 2011

  • She wore a collar of a sort, rather high and ornate, which is often jeweled.

    Kajira Of Gor Norman, John, 1931- 1983

  • For architecture, among all the arts, is the one that most boldly tries to reproduce in its rhythm the order of the universe, which the ancients called "kosmos," that is to say ornate, since it is like a great animal on whom there shine the perfection and the proportion of all its members.

    The Name of the Rose Eco, Umberto 1980

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