gimcrack

English

WOTD – 7 February 2006

Alternative forms

• jimcrack

Etymology

Unknown

Adjective

gimcrack (not comparable)

1. Showy but of poor quality; worthless.

Noun

gimcrack (plural gimcracks)

1. Something showy but worthless; a gimmick or bauble.
   • 1847–1848, William Thackeray, Vanity Fair:

     […] he came home to find […] honest Swartz in her favourite amber-coloured satin, with turquoise bracelets, countless rings, flowers, feathers, and all sorts of tags and gimcracks, about as elegantly decorated as a she chimney-sweep on May-day.

   • 2015 October 8, A[nthony] O[liver] Scott, “Review: 'Steve Jobs,' Apple's visionary C.E.O. dissected [print version: Apple's visionary C.E.O. is dissected, International New York Times, 13 October 2015, page 9]”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     The movie burnishes the image of this visionary C.E.O. [Steve Jobs] even as it tries to peek behind the curtain at the gimcrack machinery of omnipotence.

Derived terms

• gimcrackery