Definitions

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

  • noun A gaudy or showy ornament or trinket.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Jest; joke; sport; pastime; trick; artifice.
  • noun A piece of showy finery; a gay trapping, trinket, or the like; any object of ostentation or exultation.
  • noun Same as gaudy, 3.
  • To sport; jest; make merry.
  • To adorn with gauds or trinkets; decorate meretriciously; paint, as the cheeks.
  • noun A Scotch form of goad and of gad, 5.

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

  • transitive verb obsolete To bedeck gaudily; to decorate with gauds or showy trinkets or colors; to paint.
  • intransitive verb obsolete, obsolete, obsolete To sport or keep festival.
  • noun obsolete Trick; jest; sport.
  • noun obsolete Deceit; fraud; artifice; device.
  • noun An ornament; a piece of worthless finery; a trinket.

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

  • noun a cheap showy trinket
  • verb obsolete To bedeck gaudily; to decorate with gauds or showy trinkets or colours; to paint.

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

  • noun cheap showy jewelry or ornament on clothing

Etymologies

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

[Middle English gaud, gaudi, sing. of gaudies, large, ornamental beads on a rosary, trinkets, from Medieval Latin gaudia, from Latin, pl. of gaudium, joy (referring to the Joyful Mysteries of the Virgin Mary), from gaudēre, to rejoice; see gāu- in Indo-European roots.]

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  • gaud-y

    April 10, 2009

  • Surelie gaud-ie on Wordie.

    April 10, 2009