Bauble Meaning
[ˈbɔːbəɫ]Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA cheap showy ornament or piece of jewellery; a gewgaw.
nounAnything trivial and worthless.
Sentence Examples
The child played with a shiny bauble.
She wore a bauble necklace to party.
She wore a colorful glass bauble on her necklace.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
She hung a shiny red ____ on the Christmas tree for decoration.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She wore a shiny and cheap ____ around her neck to the costume party.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English bable, babel, babull, babulle, from Old French babel, baubel (“trinket, child's toy”), most likely a reduplication of bel, ultimately from Latin bellus (“pretty”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[…] as to the bauble on which the chief proof rests, if she had earnestly desired it, I should have willingly given it to her, so much do I esteem and value her."
— 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter 8, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC:
"Have none before or after him staked all their treasure of life, as a savage does his land and possessions against a draught of the fair-skins’ fire-water, or a couple of bauble eyes?"
— 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 6, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
"Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade."
— 1977, Jimmy Webb, “Highwayman”:
"His hind quarters were likewise short, and not racinglike, and taken as a specimen of the horse, he was a mere bauble when looked at by the side of an English race-horse, much less a hunter."
— 1841, The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, page 186:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She hung a shiny red ____ on the Christmas tree for decoration.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She wore a shiny and cheap ____ around her neck to the costume party.