Word.ws English Dictionary

gawdy

gawdy is the archaic form of gaudy.

Meaning of gaudy

Adjective

gaudy (comparative gaudier, superlative gaudiest)

  1. Very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner.
    • They were all trapped out in the gaudiest of clothes.
  2. (obsolete) Fun; merry; festive.
    • Let's have one other gaudy night.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...

See all 4 meanings of gaudy

Forms of gawdy

comparativegawdier
superlativegawdiest

Questions about gawdy

What is gawdy the archaic form of?
Gawdy is the archaic form of gaudy.

Words near gawdy in the dictionary

  1. gawdawful
  2. gawdier
  3. gawdiest
  4. gawdless
  5. gawds
  6. gawdy
  7. gawed
  8. Gawel
  9. Gawels
  10. gawf
  11. gawfs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gawdy (page history and authors); gaudy (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.

Last updated:

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