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Gauche vs Gaudy - What's the difference?

gauche | gaudy |

As adjectives the difference between gauche and gaudy

is that gauche is awkward or lacking in social graces; bumbling while gaudy is very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner.

As a noun gaudy is

one of the large beads in the rosary at which the paternoster is recited.

gauche

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Awkward or lacking in social graces; bumbling.
  • *19th century , (1793-1860), The Spirit Court of Practice and Pretence :
  • *:Seeking by vulgar pomp and gauche display
  • *:In 'good society', to make her way
  • * 1879 , George Meredith, The Egoist ,
    • She looked a trifle gauche , it struck me; more like a country girl with the hoyden taming in her than the well-bred creature she is.
  • *1895 , H.G. Wells, The Wonderful Visit , :
  • *:"He's a trifle gauche'" said Lady Hammergallow, jumping upon the Vicar's attention. "He neither bows nor smiles. He must cultivate oddities like that. Every successful executant is more or less ' gauche ."
  • (mathematics, archaic) Skewed, not plane.
  • (chemistry) Describing a torsion angle of 60°

    • Synonyms

    * (lacking in social graces) graceless, tactless, unsophisticated, unpolished, gawky

    Antonyms

    * (lacking in social graces) adroit

    Anagrams

    * ----

    gaudy

    English

    Etymology 1

    Origin uncertain; perhaps from . A common claim that the word derives from , is not supported by evidence (the word was in use at least half a century before Gaudí was born).

    Adjective

    (er)
  • very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner
  • * Shakespeare
    • Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, / But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy .
  • * 1813 , , Pride and Prejudice
    • The rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune of its proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine; with less of splendour, and more real elegance, than the furniture of Rosings.
  • * 1887 , Homer Greene, Burnham Breaker
    • A large gaudy , flowing cravat, and an ill-used silk hat, set well back on the wearer's head, completed this somewhat noticeable costume.
  • * 2005 , Thomas Hauser & Marilyn Cole Lownes, "How Bling-bling Took Over the Ring", The Observer , 9 January 2005
    • Gaudy jewellery might offend some people's sense of style. But former heavyweight champion and grilling-machine entrepreneur George Foreman is philosophical about today's craze for bling-bling.
  • (obsolete) gay; merry; festive
    • (Tennyson)
  • * Shakespeare
    • Let's have one other gaudy night.
  • * Twain
    • And then, there he was, slim and handsome, and dressed the gaudiest and prettiest you ever saw...
    Synonyms
    * (excessively showy) tawdry, flashy, garish, kitschy *
    Derived terms
    * gaudily * gaudy night

    Noun

    (gaudies)
  • One of the large beads in the rosary at which the paternoster is recited.
    • (Gower)

    Etymology 2

    From Latin gaudium "joy".

    Noun

    (gaudies)
  • A reunion held by one of the colleges of the University of Oxford for alumni, normally held during the summer vacations.