All 3 Uses of
gaudy
in
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- Tom was like the rest of the respectable boys, in that he envied Huckleberry his gaudy outcast condition, and was under strict orders not to play with him.†
Chpt 6
- But no, there was something gaudier even than this.†
Chpt 8 *
- A little green worm came crawling over a dewy leaf, lifting two-thirds of his body into the air from time to time and "sniffing around," then proceeding again—for he was measuring, Tom said; and when the worm approached him, of its own accord, he sat as still as a stone, with his hopes rising and falling, by turns, as the creature still came toward him or seemed inclined to go elsewhere; and when at last it considered a painful moment with its curved body in the air and then came decisively down upon Tom's leg and began a journey over him, his whole heart was glad—for that meant that he was going to have a new suit of clothes—without the shadow of a doubt a gaudy piratical uniform.†
Chpt 14
Definitions:
-
(1)
(gaudy) tastelessly showy
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) 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.