garish

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
10
Words With Friends
10
Letters
6
Pronunciation
/ˈɡɛəɹɪʃ/
See all 8 pronunciations
/ˈɡɛəɹɪʃ/ · /ˈɡɛːɹɪʃ/ · /ˈɡɛɹɪʃ/ · /ˈɡeːɹɪʃ/ · /ˈɡeəɹɪʃ/ · /ˈɡiəɹɪʃ/ · /ˈɡeɾɪʃ/ · /ˈɡɜːɹɪʃ/

Definition of garish

1 sense · 1 part of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Overly ostentatious; so colorful as to be in bad taste.
    “The dress fits her well, but the pattern is rather garish.”
    “"My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects;[…]."”
    “On the other hand, to arrive after dusk, when the multitude of garish little public-houses are lit up, giving glimpses of crowded jostling bars and taprooms, is an introduction to a fine city well calculated to affect even the most nonchalant.”
    “Leela: He gave me mechanical ears / Effective though just a bit garish.”
    “She also said that Thameslink trains were deliberately garish, so as to lure drivers stuck on the M1, which runs alongside the line around Radlett.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Unknown, possibly from obsolete Middle English gawren (“to stare”) which is of uncertain origin, probably from Old Norse gá (“to watch, heed”) or gaurr (“rough fellow”) (Proto-Indo-European *gʰow-rós, from *gʰew- (“to be angry”)). Compare with English gaw.

Anagrams of garish

3 plays · some not in Scrabble

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