Definitions
gewgaw (G(Y)OO-gaw), noun:
A showy trifle; a toy; a splendid plaything; a pretty but worthless bauble.
“A heavy gewgaw, called a crown, that spread about his temples.” –Dryden
“All the trash and trifles, the bubbles, bawbles, and gewgaws of this life.” –Fielding
“If, in the storm-portending times in which we live, the gewgaws of art or literature are worth a thought…” –J. W. Croker
“Her accomplishments were not the mere gewgaws which accomplishments so frequently are.”
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*from a helpful reader:
Etymology: c. 1225, possibly a reduplication connected with Old French ‘gogue’, meaning “joke” or “game”; or from ‘jou-jou’, “toy” – baby-talk word, from ‘jouer’, “to play”, from Latin ‘jocare’.
