All 3 Uses of
gaudy
in
The Great Gatsby
- The last swimmers have come in from the beach now and are dressing up-stairs; the cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive, and already the halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colors, and hair shorn in strange new ways, and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile.
p. 40.6gaudy = tastelessly showy
- while his house blazed gaudily on.†
p. 83.7
- A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain while the clock ticked on the wash-stand and the moon soaked with wet light his tangled clothes upon the floor.
p. 99.1 *gaudiness = tasteless showiness
Definitions:
-
(1)
(gaudy) tastelessly showy
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) Much more rarely, in classic literature gaudy can refer to something that is extravagantly showy without the implication that it is tasteless. Even more rarely, it can refer to a celebratory feast held by a college.