Meaning

3 senses

  1. (broadly, figuratively, not comparable)Apparently beautiful and costly but having little value; superficially attractive; gaudy, showy, tawdry.

  2. (not comparable, obsolete)Of fabric: ornamented by being woven with gold or silver thread, or overlaid with thin metal plates; brocaded.

  3. (broadly, not comparable, obsolete)Glittering.

Examples

6 sentences

  1. Should we get tinsel or garland for the Christmas tree?

    LimeGreenTeknii · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. When we decorate our Christmas tree, tinsel always gets stuck to our clothes.

    casaniere · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. Buy some purple tinsel.

    Seael · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  4. Hang tinsel from both branches.

    CM · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  5. I bought some purple tinsel.

    Seael · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Origin

The noun is derived from Middle English tinsel (“cloth containing gold or silver thread”)

The noun is derived from Middle English tinsel (“cloth containing gold or silver thread”) [and other forms], probably from Anglo-Norman tincel, tincelle, tencele, and then:

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
tinkerC1tinkletinttinyB1

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

tinsel — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto