ornate
Etymology

From , past participle of ornare ("to equip, adorn").

Pronunciation
  • (America) IPA: /ɔɹˈneɪt/
Adjective

ornate

  1. Elaborately ornamented, often to excess.
    • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter V, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC ↗:
      The house of Ruthven was a small but ultra-modern limestone affair, between Madison and Fifth ; […]. As a matter of fact its narrow ornate façade presented not a single quiet space that the eyes might rest on after a tiring attempt to follow and codify the arabesques, foliations, and intricate vermiculations of what some disrespectfully dubbed as “near-aissance.”
  2. Flashy, flowery or showy
  3. Finely finished, as a style of composition.
    • [1644], [John Milton], Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib, [London: […] Thomas Underhill and/or Thomas Johnson], →OCLC ↗:
      a graceful and ornate rhetoric
Related terms Verb

ornate (ornates, present participle ornating; simple past and past participle ornated)

  1. (obsolete) To adorn or honour (someone or something).
    • 1552, Hughe Latymer [i.e., Hugh Latimer], Augustine Bernher, compiler, “The Second Sermon”, in Certayn Godly Sermons, Made uppon the Lords Prayer, […], London: […] John Day, […], published 1562, →OCLC ↗, folio 13, verso ↗:
      And truely thoſe that lyue in the feare of god, (conſydering that they ſerue not only their carnal maiſters, but God hymſelfe,) they be in a good caſe: but they may not bee eye ſeruauntes. […] Saincte Paule woulde haue them to lyue ſo, that they maye ornate and ſanctifye the name of God.



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