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Meaning of bric-a-brac | Babel Free

Noun CEFR C1
/ˈbɹɪkəbɹæk/

Definitions

  1. Small ornaments and other miscellaneous display items of little value.
    also, attributive, uncountable, usually
  2. Any collection containing a variety of miscellaneous items; a hodgepodge, an olio.
    also, attributive, broadly, uncountable, usually

Equivalents

Examples

“The palace of Versailles has been turned into a bricabrac shop, of late years; and its time-honoured walls have been covered with many thousand yards of the worst pictures that eye ever looked on.”
“No doubt her pleasure would have been at that moment to give him not only that gold which she had been saving up against rent-day, but the spoons, the furniture, and all the valuables of the house, including, perhaps, J. J.'s bricabrac, cabinets, china, and so forth.”
“Haven't an affair in the world, […] except a quarrel with a bric-à-brac man.”
“Indeed, who wants the real animal or hunter? What would that do amid astral and bric-a-brac and tapestry, and ladies and gentlemen talking in subdued tones of [Robert] Browning and [Henry Wadsworth] Longfellow and art?”
“"Well, mi casa su casa," said Corbin as they rounded the final bend. They were standing in a cozy maintenance alcove with a sleeping roll on a memory foam mattress on the floor, a series of labelled duffel bags, a space heater and dehumidifier locked in eternal stalemate, a card table and two chairs, and a wide variety of bric-a-brac. There were safety and information posters on the walls, rips and creases showing that they'd been liberated from their original points of fixture. There were photographs mac-tac'd to conduits and concrete. There was even a sad little pot plant beneath a slowly leaking pipe — pot pot, Udo realized, and she almost smiled.”
“Yes: I think he is a good fellow: rather miscellaneous and bric-à-brac, but likable.”
“Yes: I think he is a good fellow: rather miscellaneous and bric-à-brac, but likable.”
“Haven't an affair in the world, […] except a quarrel with a bric-à-brac man.”
“The papier mâché desk he passed tolerantly as bric-à-brac, but the china-cabinet was dismissed with contempt.”

CEFR level

C1
Advanced
This word is part of the CEFR C1 vocabulary — advanced level.

See also

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