Tinsel \Tin"sel\, a. Showy to excess; gaudy; specious; superficial. ``Tinsel trappings.'' --Milton.
Tinsel \Tin"sel\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Tinseled}or {Tinselled}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Tinseling} or {Tinselling}.] To adorn with tinsel; to deck out with cheap but showy ornaments; to make gaudy.
She, tinseled o'er in robes of varying hues. --Pope.
Tinsel \Tin"sel\, n. [F. ['e]tincelle a spark, OF. estincelle, L. scintilla. Cf. {Scintillate}, {Stencil}.] 1. A shining material used for ornamental purposes; especially, a very thin, gauzelike cloth with much gold or silver woven into it; also, very thin metal overlaid with a thin coating of gold or silver, brass foil, or the like.
Who can discern the tinsel from the gold? --Dryden.
2. Something shining and gaudy; something superficially shining and showy, or having a false luster, and more gay than valuable.
O happy peasant! O unhappy bard! His the mere tinsel, hers the rich reward. --Cowper.
The Youngsters Last August, 17-year-old Shayma al-Obaydi hung a "Welcome Home" sign made of tinsel and colored tacks on the wall of her family's Baghdad home.
The family-owned maker of Christmas decorations has neither an ad campaign touting quality nor a manufacturing guru advising how to make better tinsel.
The leader, stately but fragile after a stroke in 1990, is wrapped in tinsel and half carried to the front of the stage by two acolytes.
"Several items from the same room as the decorations have been removed and cleaned, but it would probably be a very complicated process to clean the tinsel," he said.
"Our forbears did not forge Reform Judaism to have us trade it in for a tinsel imitation of Orthodoxy," said Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
I'd call this phony tinsel, if it didn't seem so real.