Word.ws English Dictionary

garish

UK/ˈɡɛəɹɪʃ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈɡɛːɹɪʃ/

garish adjective: overly ostentatious; so colorful as to be in bad taste.

Adjective

garish (comparative more garish, superlative most garish)

  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...1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

garish meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

garish in Hindi

overly ostentatious; so colourful as to be in bad taste
भड़कीला bhaṛkīlā, भड़कदार bhaṛakdār, शोख़ śox, चटकीला caṭkīlā

garish in Urdu

بھڑ کیلا, بھڑک دار, چمکیلا, چمک دار, فوق البھڑک, خیرہ کن

garish in Bengali

অতিরিক্ত জমকালো, রুচিহীনভাবে উজ্জ্বল, চটকদার

garish in Malayalam

അതിശൃംഗാരമായ, അത്യുജ്ജ്വലമായ, പകിട്ടുള്ള, മോടികാട്ടുന്ന
More languagesFewer languages
garish in Kannada
ಕಣ್ಣು ಕೋರೈಸುವ, ಅತಿ ಪ್ರಕಾಶದ, ಅತಿ ಜಾಜ್ವಲ್ಯಮಾನವಾದ, ಉಜ್ವಲವಾದ

Examples of garish in a sentence

  • Leela: He gave me mechanical ears / Effective though just a bit garish.2003 August 10, Ken Keeler, “The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings”, in Futurama, season 5, episode 16 (television production), Fox...
  • 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.2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 57:

All 14 example sentences with garish

Synonyms of garish

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of garish

Forms of garish

comparativemore garish
superlativemost garish

Origin of garish

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.

Words formed from garish

Questions about garish

What does garish mean?
Garish means overly ostentatious; so colorful as to be in bad taste.
What is garish in Hindi?
Garish in Hindi is भड़कीला (bhaṛkīlā), भड़कदार (bhaṛakdār), शोख़ (śox). See Garish meaning in Hindi.
How do you use garish in a sentence?
Leela: He gave me mechanical ears / Effective though just a bit garish.
What part of speech is garish?
Garish is an adjective.
How do you pronounce garish?
Garish is pronounced /ˈɡɛəɹɪʃ/ (UK).

Words near garish in the dictionary

  1. garigues
  2. Garima
  3. Garinagu
  4. Garis
  5. Garises
  6. garish
  7. garishly
  8. garishness
  9. garishnesses
  10. garison
  11. garisons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: garish (page history and authors); garish (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Garish (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); garish (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); garish (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-garish.ogg.

Cite this entry: “garish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/garish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.