Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Making a striking or aesthetically pleasing display.
- adjective Marked by or given to extravagant, often tasteless display.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Making a show or striking appearance; gay; brilliant; gaudy; effective.
- Given to show or display; ostentatious.
- Synonyms Gorgeous, magnificent, sumptuous, pompous, grand, flashy, glaring, garish, dressy.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Making a show; attracting attention; presenting a marked appearance; ostentatious; gay; gaudy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective calling attention;
flashy ;standing out to the eye, often in such a way that is of lowquality or littlemerit
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective superficially attractive and stylish; suggesting wealth or expense
- adjective marked by ostentation but often tasteless
- adjective (used especially of clothes) marked by conspicuous display
- adjective displaying brilliance and virtuosity
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Its flowers are used in showy tropical arrangements.
Coffee, swamp lily and heliconia: ornamental plants and flowers of tropical Mexico 2008
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Its flowers are used in showy tropical arrangements.
Coffee, swamp lily and heliconia: ornamental plants and flowers of tropical Mexico 2008
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Howland kept getting questions during the tournament about how the gritty, slowdown style was playing in showy, glitzy L.A., and how the region's plethora of high-scoring high school stars will receive recruiting calls from the nation's new defensive powerhouse.
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But plenty were cowboys, too, and upon emerging from the Green Zone they drove in showy clusters of SUVs, nose to tail, cutting off traffic and careening down the streets as if they were taking fire.
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But plenty were cowboys, too, and upon emerging from the Green Zone they drove in showy clusters of SUVs, nose to tail, cutting off traffic and careening down the streets as if they were taking fire.
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She was neither very brilliant, nor altogether a pretender, but might be described as a showy woman, of slight but popular accomplishments.
Autobiographical Sketches Thomas De Quincey 1822
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Page 446 used to call my showy butler, died an object of disgust and horror, whilst old Jacob, with whose red nightcap you comically threatened the gay dandy -- lived till the other day, and dying, left 800 pounds behind him!
The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay — Volume 3 Fanny Burney 1796
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Feinmel said Kelley had no regular employment and there was little that could be described as showy about his lifestyle.
News for Richmond Times-Dispatch Richmond Times-Dispatch 2010
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So the Coens and I started talking about Tommy Lee and other people that are fun to listen to, like Bill Clinton, and thought about what it would be like if a person had that kind of showy presentation — but was devoid of substance.
Damon's Ride to the Coens' Best Western Michelle Kung 2011
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No critics have ever hurled the kind of negative thunderbolts at him that a more obviously "showy" pianist like Lang Lang has endured from the beginning of his international career.
Albert Imperato: The Art of Collaboration and the Meaning of "Pictures Reframed" 2009
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