Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use tinsel in a sentence

14 example sentences · noun, adjective, verb

Tinsel means a silk or wool fabric with gold or silver thread woven into it; brocade. Example: “I put tinsel on the Christmas tree.”

Examples of tinsel by meaning

nounA thin, shiny foil for ornamental purposes which is of a material made of metal or resembling metal; especially, narrow...

  • They dated from the previous century and were coarsely printed on tinted paper, with tinsel outlining the design.1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword: The Turk Street Mile”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 11

verbTo give (something) a false or superficial attractiveness.

  • I could tell them vague tales of their poetry, and cruel wars: but it seemed distant and tinselled an age.1926, T. E. Lawrence, chapter 105, in Seven Pillars of Wisdom

More sentences with tinsel

  • I put tinsel on the Christmas tree.From the entry put on
  • We decorated the Christmas tree with tinsel and baubles.From the entry decorate
  • She chose a simple rakhi, a small silver flower of tinsel on a red thread.1993, Vikram Seth, “The Prime Minister Fights, and Keeps His Head. Sad Sons Assuage the Spirits of Their Dead.”, in A Suitable Boy, New…. From the entry rakhi
  • They are gathered under the low-hanging branches of a poplar, its gold and green leaves glittering on the breeze like tinsel.2020, Paul Mendez, Rainbow Milk, Dialogue Books (2021), page 285. From the entry poplar
  • Bollywood is also very commonly known as both tinsel town and B-town, neither of which is listed in the dictionaries.2012, James Lambert, “Beyond Hobson-Jobson: A new lexicography for Indian English”, in World Englishes, page 302. From the entry Bollywood
  • The room is a feastful of firework light, tinsel weeds.1986, Alan Moore, Opia, page 19. From the entry feastful
  • After a few months, I come again to the record & it seems a mere bit of glistening tin or tinsel, and no such worldwisdom.2011, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William H. Gilman, Charles Johnson, Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. From the entry worldwisdom
  • Bob took it home to their little apartment, and Jayne nearly smothered the little tree in blinking lights and ornaments and garlands and tinsel.2010, Delilah Scott, Emma Troy, “’Tis Better to Give … Or Why Beauty is in the Eye of the Gift Giver”, in The Upside-down Christmas Tree…. From the entry Charlie Brown Christmas tree
  • Sigrid took a bittersweet trip down memory lane when Anne opened the carton of ornaments and lifted out a crumpled tinsel star.1989, Margaret Maron, Corpus Christmas (A Crime Club Book), Warner Books edition, New York, N.Y.: Mysterious Press, published 2001, →ISBN…. From the entry memory lane
  • The signs are everywhere: there are bells and tinsel on street lamps, shoppers on the sidewalks and Santas busting out all over.1977 November 26, Kate Wheeler, “Talk of Our Town: Parade Toasts Polar Visitor”, in The Miami Herald, 1st edition, 67th year, number 361…. From the entry bust out
  • How else to survive the concrete landscape and endless traffic, the airheads and flakes, the tinsel and hustle and sheer vapidity of a metropolis which considered la-la-land a compliment?2016 September 26, Rory Carroll, “The boho-drain: bohemians say goodbye San Francisco, hello LA”, in The Guardian. From the entry la-la-land
  • When you finally find the “hot” baitfish pattern, all too often, a large fish will chew it to a Pollackesque mosaic of marabou, tinsel, and Flashabou.2010, Jeff Morgan, Productive Trout Flies for Unorthodox Prey: Ecology & Imitation, page 33. From the entry Pollackesque

Meaning of tinsel

  1. noun A silk or wool fabric with gold or silver thread woven into it; brocade.
  2. noun A very thin, gauzelike cloth with gold or silver (or, later, copper) thread woven into it, or overlaid with thin metal plates.
  3. noun A thin, shiny foil for ornamental purposes which is of a material made of metal or resembling metal; especially, narrow glittering strips of such a material, often strung on to thread, and traditionally at Christmastime draped on Christmas trees, hung from balustrades or ceilings, or wrapped around objects as a decoration.

Full definition of tinsel

Questions about tinsel in a sentence

How do you use tinsel in a sentence?
Tinsel is used as a noun, adjective and verb. For example: “I put tinsel on the Christmas tree.”
What is a short sentence with tinsel?
“I put tinsel on the Christmas tree.”
What does tinsel mean?
Tinsel means a silk or wool fabric with gold or silver thread woven into it; brocade.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tinsel (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use tinsel in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/tinsel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.