Meaning of Tinsel | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A shining fabric used for ornamental purposes.
   obsolete, uncountable, usually
2. A silk or wool fabric with gold or silver thread woven into it; brocade.
   obsolete, uncountable, usually
3. Damage, detriment; loss.
   Scotland, obsolete, transitive, uncountable
4. A very thin, gauzelike cloth with gold or silver (or, later, copper) thread woven into it, or overlaid with thin metal plates.
   obsolete, uncountable, usually
5. Deprivation; forfeiture.
   Scotland, archaic, transitive, uncountable
6. A thin, shiny foil for ornamental purposes which is of a material made of metal or resembling metal; especially, narrow glittering strips of such a material, often strung on to thread, and traditionally at Christmastime draped on Christmas trees, hung from balustrades or ceilings, or wrapped around objects as a decoration.
   broadly, uncountable, usually
7. Anything shining and gaudy; especially something superficially shiny and showy, or having a false lustre, and more pretty than valuable.
   broadly, figuratively, uncountable, usually

Equivalents

Examples

“Firſt, the hethermoſt, in the changeable blew, and greene robe, is the commendably-faſhioned gallant, Evcosmos; […] The fourth, in watchet tinſell, is the kind, and truly benefique, Evcolos.”

“I know in that more ſubtil Air of yours Tinſel ſometimes paſſes for Tiſſue, Venice Beads for Pearl, and Demicaſters for Bevers; But I know you have ſo diſcerning a Judgment, that you will not ſuffer your ſelf to be ſo cheated, […]”

“O! it is divine and moſt admirable, and ſo farre beyond all that ever he publiſhed heretofore, as day-light beyond candle-light, or tinſell or leafe-gold above arſedine; […]”

“A tawdry scarf of yellow silk, trimmed with tinsel and spangles, which had seen as hard service, and boasted as honourable a transmission, was next flung over one shoulder, and fell across her person in the manner of a shoulder-belt or baldrick.”

“He stood transfixed before the unaccustomed view of London at night time, a vast panorama which reminded him not so much of the aerial photographs of today but rather of some wood engravings far off and magical, in a printshop in his childhood. They dated from the previous century and were coarsely printed on tinted paper, with tinsel outlining the design.”

“Her garments all were wrought of beaten gold, / And all her ſteed with tinſell trappings ſhone, / Which fledd ſo faſt, that nothing mote him hold, / And ſcarſe them leaſure gaue, her paſſing to behold.”

“Yet ſcatter'd here and there I ſome behold, / Who can diſcern the Tinſel from the Gold: […]”

“O happy peaſant! O unhappy bard! / His the mere tinſel, her's the rich reward; / He prais'd perhaps for ages yet to come, / She never heard of half a mile from home; / He loſt in errors his vain heart prefers, / She ſafe in the ſimplicity of hers.”

“[T]hey have been the delusive prologue to an age worse than that of iron—the age of tinsel and gossamer, in which no thought has substance enough to be moulded into consistent and lasting form.”

CEFR level