gimcrack \JIM-krak\, noun: 1. A showy but useless or worthless object; a gewgaw.
adjective: Yet the set is more than a collection of pretty gimcracks. In
those cities most self-conscious about their claim to be part of
English history, like Oxford or Bath, the shops where you could have
bought a dozen nails, home-made cakes or had a suit run up, have shut
down and been replaced with places selling teddy bears, T-shirts and gimcrack souvenirs. And
as for coincidences in books -- there's something cheap and sentimental
about the device; it can't help always seeming aesthetically gimcrack. —Dictionary.com |