tinsel
A thin, shiny foil for ornamental purposes which is of a material made of metal or…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.
Recorded UK: Speaker: Vealhurl Recorder: Vealhurl, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
» Should we get tinsel or garland for the Christmas tree?
LimeGreenTeknii · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRTranslations
8 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 1
Examples
6 sentencesShould we get tinsel or garland for the Christmas tree?
When we decorate our Christmas tree, tinsel always gets stuck to our clothes.
Buy some purple tinsel.
Meaning
6 senses(broadly, uncountable, usually)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.
Flittergold, Lametta, Rauschgold
мишура́mišurá, блёсткиbljóstki
мішураmišura, дощикdoščyk
(broadly, figuratively, uncountable, usually)Anything shining and gaudy; especially something superficially shiny and showy, or having a false lustre, and more pretty than valuable.
A shining fabric used for ornamental purposes.
(obsolete, uncountable, usually)A silk or wool fabric with gold or silver thread woven into it; brocade.
More meanings 3
A shining fabric used for ornamental purposes.
(obsolete, uncountable, usually)A very thin, gauzelike cloth with gold or silver (or, later, copper) thread woven into it, or overlaid with thin metal plates.
(Scotland, obsolete, transitive, uncountable)Damage, detriment; loss.
(Scotland, archaic, transitive, uncountable)Deprivation; forfeiture.
- a showy decoration that is basically valueless
- a thread with glittering metal foil attached
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
Forms
plural: tinsels| Singular | tinsel |
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uncountable
Synonyms
1 synonymsWord family
8 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary 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.