Definitions

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

  • adjective Plentiful or abundant in appearance only; illusory.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as Barmecide.

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

  • adjective Unreal; illusory.

Etymologies

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

[After Barmecide, a nobleman in The Arabian Nights, who served an imaginary feast to a beggar.]

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Examples

  • To an Englishman's judgment the true “part of Hamlet” in a feast is the more generous fluid, and the greatest luxuries are simply Barmecidal without some wholesome stimulant to wash them down; accordingly, my too outspoken honesty protested thus in print against this form of folly in extremes, and either pleased or offended, as friends or foes might choose to take it.

    My Life as an Author Tupper, Martin F 1886

  • The tax rebate is a Barmecidal windfall, coming as it does in the wake of new hidden taxes on consumer goods and services.

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day 2010

  • 'by his own fireside,' what greater enjoyment can he have than to abandon himself in true Barmecidal fashion to the tempting dainties which the last page of the supplement to the _Times_ offers to his keen appetite!

    The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 1, January, 1864 Various

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