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gaudy

adj.
C1 Advanced US //ˈɡɔdi// UK //ɡˈɔːdi// gaudy Archaic

adj. too bright, colorful, or expensive-looking. You use this to describe things that are flashy and not very elegant.

adj. characterised by excessive ornamentation, bright colours, or showy display. Often carries a negative connotation of being tasteless or overly ostentatious.


SIMPLE

The hotel has a very gaudy interior.

CONTEXTUAL

He wore a gaudy suit to the wedding, which made everyone else's more modest clothes look plain.

COMPLEX

The architect's gaudy designs, while technically impressive, were criticized for clashing with the quiet elegance of the surrounding historic district.

Synonyms
Etymology 1

From Middle English gaudi, from Old French gaudie, from Medieval Latin gaudia. equivalent to gaud (“ornament, trinket”) + -y. Alternatively, from Middle English gaudi, gawdy (“yellowish”), from Old French gaude, galde (“weld (the plant)”), from Frankish walda, from Proto-Germanic walþō, walþijō, akin to Old English weald, *wielde (>Middle English welde, wolde and Anglo-Latin walda (“alum”)), Middle Low German wolde, Middle Dutch woude. More at English weld. A common claim that the word derives from Antoni Gaudí, designer of Barcelona's Sagrada Família Basilica, is incorrect: the word was in use centuries before Gaudí was born.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin gaudium (“joy”). Doublet of joy and jo.

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