Literary notes about gaudy (AI summary)
In literature, the term “gaudy” frequently carries dual connotations of both ostentatious beauty and vulgar excess. Authors use it to depict objects, attire, and settings that overwhelm the senses with bright, excessive ornamentation—often suggesting that superficial appeal may hide a lack of genuine refinement [1, 2]. At times, “gaudy” is employed to critique the flashy and unrefined, marking a striking contrast between cultivated elegance and crass showiness, as in descriptions of lavish furnishings or flamboyant costumes that dazzle with their ostensible brilliance yet hint at underlying gaudiness [3, 4]. Such usage demonstrates the word’s versatility, serving as both an aesthetic marker and a subtle indictment of style that prioritizes appearance over substance [5, 6].
- Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy; rich not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden - In that situation, the expense, even of a sovereign, cannot be directed by that vanity which delights in the gaudy finery of a court.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - At the further end of the Museum, reached by three steps, was a gaudy throne chair of solid gold and silver enamelled.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - She had caught sight of her new Sunday gown—a cheap curtain-calico thing, a conflagration of gaudy colors and fantastic figures.
— from The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain - The man was a wreck; but his clothes and his jewellery—in cruel mockery of the change in him—were as gay and as gaudy as ever.
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins - [260] Clark and Wright well compare Polonius' antithesis of 'rich, not gaudy': though I doubt if 'handsome' implies richness.
— from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. Bradley
