gaud

Definition

A cheap showy trinket

Etymology

From Middle English gaude, gawde (“jest, prank, trick; ornamental bead in a rosary, trinket, bauble”). Compare Middle English gaudy, gaudee, of the same meaning.

Example Sentences

• "an idle gaud"
• "A Libyan longing took us, and we would have chosen, if we could, to bear a strand of grotesque beads, or a handful of brazen gauds, and traffic them for some sable maid with crisp locks, whom, uncoffling from the captive train beside the desert, we should make to do our general housework forever, through the right of lawful purchase."
• "Dalmeny lent me red tabs, Evans his brass hat; so that I had the gauds of my appointment in the ceremony of the Jaffa gate, which for me was the supreme moment of the war."

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