furbelow
Americannoun
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a ruffle or flounce, as on a woman's skirt or petticoat.
-
any bit of showy trimming or finery.
verb (used with object)
noun
-
a flounce, ruffle, or other ornamental trim
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(often plural) showy ornamentation
verb
Other Word Forms
- unfurbelowed adjective
Etymology
Origin of furbelow
First recorded in 1670–80; variant of falbala
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They were going to bare their shoulders, drape themselves in extravagant yards of rich cloth and go out on the town festooned with about every feminine furbelow short of a bone in the nose.
From Time Magazine Archive
In dress, the stress is on flair and fabric, not feather and furbelow.
From Time Magazine Archive
Boston ladies, their skirts all passe- mentarie and furbelow, India silk and jaconet, crowded the chambers, swiveling their hoops and panniers like dames on clocks to navigate the doors.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
In powder, patch, and furbelow, Cocked-hat and sword; and every one,— Tory and whig of long ago,— As real as in the days long done, The courtly days of Washington.
From Weeds by the Wall Verses by Cawein, Madison Julius
Nay, oft in dreams invention we bestow To change a flounce or add a furbelow.
From Hours in a Library, Volume I. (of III.) by Stephen, Leslie, Sir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
