Definition of "frippery"

Young women of such birth, living in a quiet country-house, and attending a village church hardly larger than a parlor, naturally regarded frippery as the ambition of a huckster’s daughter.

1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, book I

Well, we were probably never going to mistake Gordon Brown for a rococo dandy. Out go Thomas Gainsborough and George Romney with all their 18th century frills and fripperies, like aristocrats deported on the tumbril.

1999 July 21, Jonathan Jones, “Grey and grimy alternative to frippery that bespeaks loyalty to welfare state Britain”, in The Guardian‎

The frippery-filled world of fashion confounded its critics yesterday when it became sombre and serious in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the US.

2001 September 18, Audrey Gillan, “London Fashion Week opens”, in The Guardian‎

And so frippery and force combine to make a political position – support for the monarchy – seem like the natural, sacred default.

2023 May 8, Nesrine Malik, “The coronation pulled a screen across a desperate, failing nation – just as intended”, in The Guardian‎

[Olmsted reiterated his insistence that in Chicago] simplicity and reserve will be practiced and petty effects and frippery avoided.

1892 April, Frederick Law Olmsted, Report by F.L.O., quoted in 2003, Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishing Group, page 170

“At any rate you see me still unmarried. I have found no time to palter with the fripperies of women.”

1900, C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne, The Lost Continent‎

[Oscar] Pistorius's punishment for killing her [Reeva Steenkamp] that night is but a frippery when set against the burden that her bereft parents, June and Barry, must carry.

2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport)‎

If thou doſt, come ouer, and but ſee our fripperie: change an olde ſhirt, for a whole ſmocke, with vs.

1598, Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Euery Man in His Humour. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, Act I, scene ii, page 9

Oh, ho, Monſter: wee know what belongs to a frippery, O King Stephano.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene i], page 15, column 2

There's my pretty darling Kate; the faſhions of the times have almoſt infected her too. By living a year or two in town, ſhe is as fond of gauze, and French frippery, as the beſt of them.

1773, [Oliver] Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer: Or, The Mistakes of a Night. A Comedy. […], London: […] F[rancis] Newbery, […], Act I, page 5

[…] but consider I was born in the land of talisman and spell, and my childhood lulled by tales which you can only enjoy through the gauzy frippery of a French translation.

1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter XVII, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], page 267

But, there were preparations for a Festa; the pillars of stately marble were swathed in some impertinent frippery of red and yellow […]

1846, Charles Dickens, “Rome”, in Pictures from Italy, London: […] Bradbury & Evans, […], page 166

We detest the affectation and effeminate frippery which is but too frequent in the modern novel

1848, anonymous author, “Review of Wuthering Heights”, in Examiner