Word of the Day Archive
Wednesday October 12, 2005
gewgaw \G(Y)OO-gaw\ , noun:
A showy trifle; a trinket; a bauble.
Bidders paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for worthless gewgaws--fake pearls, ashtrays, golf clubs--merely, one supposes, because they were touched by the hand of this celebrity of celebrities.
-- Lawrence M. Friedman, The Horizontal Society
At least, you're tempted until you discover that the price of this gewgaw is $175.
-- Walter Shapiro, "Earn exciting prizes from the Republicans!", USA Today, March 27, 2002
Walk into almost any department store, and there it is -- along with mounds of other gimmicky gadgets and garish gewgaws that (no offense, Vanna) the world can live without.
-- James A. Russell, "What the World Needs Now . . . Is Not Another Gimmicky Gadget or Worthless Doohickey", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 9, 1995
The origin of gewgaw is uncertain.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for gewgaw
