garish
adjective
Synonyms
- flamboyant
- flaring
- flashy
- gaudy
- glitzy
- loud
- noisy
- ostentatious
- razzle-dazzle
- splashy
- swank
- swanky
Example Sentences
Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 22 Aug. 2022 The logos weren’t garish, and there was even a brown option with understated gray trim. Wes Siler, Outside Online, 18 Aug. 2022 Even more surprisingly, Psy did it with what amounted to a Korean inside joke: his big hit lampoons the garish and culturally incongruous pretensions of Seoul’s nouveau riche, a class in evidence nowhere more so than Gangnam. Colin Marshall, The New Yorker, 15 Aug. 2022 When the film franchise began, the directors Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher introduced the dark and garish Gotham. New York Times, 20 July 2022 Businesses discover ever more garish ways to seize the attention of passersby. David A. Bell, The New York Review of Books, 3 Aug. 2022 Rather than being a garish hodgepodge of logos and zippers, the Cary is as clean and classic in appearance as my leather briefcase—just built from materials that can withstand a storm. Eric Twardzik, Robb Report, 6 July 2022 Look closer and the perfection of this car is just as shocking as the garish Aston. Brendan Mcaleer, Car and Driver, 3 July 2022 Even as giant residential towers sprang up around Jumbo, its garish neon sign and imperial-style architecture still dominated the skyline around Aberdeen Harbor, on the southwest side of Hong Kong Island. Mike Ives, BostonGlobe.com, 21 June 2022 See More Word History
origin unknown
1545, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Kids Definition
garish
adjective
garish
adjective
Synonyms & Similar Words
- loud
- gaudy
- noisy
- flashy
- ostentatious
- ornate
- glitzy
- flamboyant
- flaring
- extravagant
- excessive
- swank
- splashy
- fancy
- swanky
- bright
- razzle-dazzle
- baroque
- overwrought
- overdone
- glaring
- pretentious
- hammy
- over-the-top
- glittery
- tacky
- bedizened
- fulsome
- snazzy
- spectacular
- tawdry
- florid
- lurid
- tasteless
- blaring
- overbright
- vulgar
- tinselly
- inelegant
- graceless
- zooty
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- understated
- appropriate
- conservative
- quiet
- proper
- fitting
- muted
- subdued
- tasteful
- restrained
- inconspicuous
- unflashy
- elegant
- unobtrusive
- plain
- graceful
- modest
- unflamboyant
- toned (down)
- simple
- unpretentious
Synonym Chooser
Some common synonyms of garish are flashy, gaudy, meretricious, and tawdry. While all these words mean "vulgarly or cheaply showy," garish describes what is distressingly or offensively bright.
While the synonyms flashy and garish are close in meaning, flashy implies an effect of brilliance quickly and easily seen to be shallow or vulgar.
The meanings of gaudy and garish largely overlap; however, gaudy implies a tasteless use of overly bright, often clashing colors or excessive ornamentation.
Although the words meretricious and garish have much in common, meretricious stresses falsity and may describe a tawdry show that beckons with a false allure or promise.
While in some cases nearly identical to garish, tawdry applies to what is at once gaudy and cheap and sleazy.