Crossword clues for bauble
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bauble \Bau"ble\ (b[add]"b'l), n. [Cf. OF. baubel a child's plaything, F. babiole, It. babbola, LL. baubellum gem, jewel, L. babulus, a baburrus, foolish.]
-
A trifling piece of finery; a gewgaw; that which is gay and showy without real value; a cheap, showy plaything.
The ineffective bauble of an Indian pagod.
--Sheridan. The fool's club. [Obs.] ``A fool's bauble was a short stick with a head ornamented with an ass's ears fantastically carved upon it.''
--Nares.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"showy trinket or ornament," early 14c., from Old French baubel "child's toy, trinket," probably a reduplication of bel, from Latin bellus "pretty" (see bene-). Or else related to babe, baby.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A cheap showy ornament piece of jewellery; a gewgaw. 2 A club or sceptre carried by a jester. 3 A small shiny spherical decoration, commonly put on Christmas trees.
WordNet
Wikipedia
A bauble is a spherical Christmas ornament, usually hung on a Christmas tree.
It may be a blend of two different words, an Old French , a child's plaything, and an old English babyll, something swinging to and fro. It was applied to a stick with a weight attached, used in weighing, to a child's toy, and especially to the mock symbol of office carried by a court jester, a baton terminating in a figure of Folly with cap and bells, and sometimes having a bladder fastened to the other end. Hence it became a term for any triviality or childish folly.
Although its meaning is restricted in modern English, the word was once used by both British and American writers to mean either a small object extravagantly decorated (such as Dickens's "rich bauble of a casket"), a previously valuable object that has lost its worth (such as the suicidal King Aegeus's crown and scepter in Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales), or even an abstraction such as immortality.
Usage examples of "bauble".
But the adventure should hold something beyond the fairy-tale elements of a magic golden bauble, a vengeful queen, a mysterious castle, and rivals for the hand of a princess.
After a last, curious glance at the bauble, Rhun returned it to Eilonwy.
He handed the bauble to Taran, who carefully tucked it into his jacket.
For a moment he held it covered in his hands, fearing disappointment should the bauble fail to glow.
Gurgi silently gave the bauble back to Taran who, heavy hearted, cupped it in his hands again.
He was about to return the bauble to his jacket, but stopped short and stared at his hand.
The giant bent, shaded his white eyes against the light of the bauble, and peered at the companions.
Clutching the bauble, Taran bent and thrust his way past the jagged arch.
Next moment, he collided with a wall of stone and fell back on his heels while the bauble slipped from his grasp and dropped among the pebbles on the uneven ground.
The bauble had rolled into a corner, but one glance, in the light of the glowing sphere, showed Taran there was no other way in or out of the chamber.
At the entrance to the chamber stood Prince Rhun, the bauble blazing in his hand.
Taran crouched on the turf, held the bauble close to the book, and with trembling fingers turned leaf after leaf.
And because he offered the greatest sacrifice, the bauble glowed brightest for him.
Project Bauble was, after all, about the only real action going, so far as econo-war effort was concerned.
But his hunch was that, if an ego-field were ever going to inhabit the Bauble, it would have done so before now.