Definition

1. Noun:
   • Strident color or excessive ornamentation: The quality of being overly bright, flashy, or decorated in a way that is harsh to look at.
   • Tasteless showiness: The quality of being ostentatious or gaudy in a way that shows poor aesthetic judgment.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The garishness of the neon signs made the street feel overwhelming.
  • He was appalled by the garishness of the room's decor, with its clashing patterns and gold trim.

Advanced Usage

• "Garishness" as a critique: Often used in formal or artistic criticism to describe a lack of subtlety or refinement.
  • The critic panned the film for its visual garishness, calling it a sensory assault.

Variants and Related Words

• Garish (adj): Excessively bright or showy, so as to be in bad taste.
  • She wore a garish dress covered in sequins.
• Gaudiness (n): A close synonym, meaning tastelessly bright or showy.
  • The gaudiness of the costume was intentional for the comedy sketch.

Synonyms

• Gaudiness: Ostentatious or tasteless display.
• Flashiness: The quality of being superficially attractive or stylish in a showy way.
• Loudness (in reference to color/design): Strikingly bright or vivid to an unpleasant degree.
• Tawdriness: The quality of being showy but cheap and of poor quality.

Idioms and Phrases

• "A feast of garishness": Used to describe a scene or object that is an extreme example of being overly bright and tasteless.
  • The parade was a feast of garishness, with floats covered in glitter and blinding lights.

Noun

1. strident color or excessive ornamentation
2. tasteless showiness