Make Your Point: GARISH

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pronounce GARISH:

GAIR ish

connect this word to others:

When you think of garish, think of Elton John's costumes, the ones with gems and feathers and bright colors. The whole look is loud and gaudy and obnoxious. I love it.

(Source)

Garish things aren't just tacky, glitzy, or flashy; they're also bright and colorful.

If you wanted to get even showier with your word choice, you could call garish things o_c___aceous: extravagant in color or design, like a certain kind of flower.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

"Garish" might come from a Middle English word that meant "to stare."

Since the 1500s, we've used it to describe things that make us stare: things that are flashy, showy, and gaudy, with extremely bright colors.

It's such a useful word, so precisely defined, that for centuries its meaning has basically stayed the same!

Today, we still call things garish when they're overly decorated with shiny stuff or bright colors.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "a garish display of Christmas lights;" "Somehow their Christmas display is even more garish this year. I respect that."

Other forms:

The adverb is "garishly."

And the noun is "garishness."

how to use it:

"Garish" is often a little insulting or critical. It's formal and semi-common, which makes it good for calling just a bit of extra attention to your description. Basically, if something is shiny enough or colorful enough to absolutely offend your sense of taste, call it garish.

You might talk about garish lights and colors, garish decorations and artwork, garish clothes and accessories, garish devices and cars, and so on. Even entire neighborhoods or cities could be garish, like Las Vegas or Orlando.

examples:

"Harry uncorked the poison he had taken from Slughorn's desk, which was a garish shade of pink, tipped it into his cauldron, and lit a fire underneath it."
— J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2005

"The electrified dance cage was just one in a long line of garish exhibitions I had seen on my whirlwind tour of Tesla’s new Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, on a Thursday night. I'd already weaved in and out of a metallic cactus forest."
— Loren Grush, The Verge, 14 April 2022

has this page helped you understand "garish"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "garish" without saying "chintzy" or "ostentatious."

try it out:

We most often use the word "garish" concretely, describing things that offend our good taste visually. It's rare to see "garish" used figuratively, describing things that offend our good taste behaviorally. But let's see an example!

In an article about the business of professional baseball, Tyler Kepner wrote: "The owners... want more revenue in the form of a garish money grab: expanded playoffs and advertisements on jerseys and helmets."

Talk about what that means: what's the garish behavior here? Could you think of another example of a person or company doing something garish?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is "The Tip of the Tongue!"

You know how sometimes you'll be reaching for a perfect word, and it's right there at the tip of your tongue, where you can almost taste it? Somehow that word is caught in the liminal space between your memory and your mouth. This month, let's play with that experience, and practice resolving it to our satisfaction.

I'll give you a short quote from Chris Palmer's heartfelt and eye-opening new book, Achieving a Good Death: A Practical Guide to the End of Life, along with a blank where Chris has deployed a truly perfect word. To help bring that word to the tip of your tongue, I'll describe it both physically and semantically.

Try this one today:

"Our fear of death is diminished when we leave good works behind and live on in the lives of our loved ones and family. There are many forms such good works can take, ranging from legacy letters, to creating enduring nonprofits, to helping grandchildren flourish. They all help to _____ death by leaving behind something survivors will treasure."

The word is 4 or 5 syllables long, depending on how you say it. It sounds very soft, with no harsh consonants; it sounds like what it means. It has an M and an L inside it.

It means "make things better, especially when they seem painful, disastrous, or hopeless."

To reveal the right word, scroll to the bottom of the issue.

review this word:

1. The opposite of GARISH could be

A. SLIM or FEMININE.
B. MUTED or TASTEFUL.
C. GENEROUS or ABUNDANT.

2. The cover of the book Garish Gardens and _____ Lawns features _____.

A. Lavish .. lush clusters of flowering bushes in various shades of white
B. Cottagecore .. tiny ceramic mushrooms and dense walls of deep green climbing ivy
C. Outlandish .. a glistening statue of a portly Elvis and seven fluorescent pink plastic flamingos

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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