OSTENTATIOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ostentatious mean? 

• OSTENTATIOUS (adjective)
  The adjective OSTENTATIOUS has 2 senses:

1. intended to attract notice and impress others

2. (of a display) tawdry or vulgar

  Familiarity information: OSTENTATIOUS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OSTENTATIOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Intended to attract notice and impress others

Synonyms:

ostentatious; pretentious

Context example:

an ostentatious sable coat

Similar:

flaunty (inclined to flaunt)

flamboyant; showy; splashy (marked by ostentation but often tasteless)

Antonym:

unostentatious (not ostentatious)

Derivation:

ostentation (pretentious or showy or vulgar display)

ostentation (a gaudy outward display)

ostentatiousness (lack of elegance as a consequence of being pompous and puffed up with vanity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(of a display) tawdry or vulgar

Synonyms:

ostentatious; pretentious

Similar:

tasteless (lacking aesthetic or social taste)

Derivation:

ostentatiousness (lack of elegance as a consequence of being pompous and puffed up with vanity)

 Context examples 

A part-grown puppy, somewhat larger and older than he, came toward him slowly, with ostentatious and belligerent importance.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He passed his hand complacently over his bald head, and said with ostentatious resignation: My dear, we will not anticipate the decrees of fortune.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

They were then, with no other delay than his pointing out the neatness of the entrance, taken into the house; and as soon as they were in the parlour, he welcomed them a second time, with ostentatious formality to his humble abode, and punctually repeated all his wife's offers of refreshment.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)