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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
conspicuous
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a conspicuous exception (=one that is very easy to notice)
▪ With one conspicuous exception, Ayers Rock, the desert landscape is completely flat.
a distinct/marked/conspicuous lack of sth (=very noticeable)
▪ She looked at him with a marked lack of enthusiasm.
conspicuous consumption
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
less
▪ They would be less conspicuous if they walked.
▪ I always felt that 4 men going out no more than 400 meters would be quieter and less conspicuous.
▪ But there are other offences, less conspicuous.
▪ To make the spur less conspicuous, it can be stained brown with a special concrete stain.
▪ Under these conditions the slight convexity caused by rejuvenation will be quickly rendered even less conspicuous by subsequent river erosion.
▪ This compensates for the top-lighting. making the animals look flatter and less conspicuous.
▪ Granulomata themselves were comparatively infrequent, and other histological features characteristic of Crohn's disease were less conspicuous than usual.
more
▪ This feature becomes more conspicuous on distal arm segments.
▪ The small-business component of the local chambers of commerce affiliated with us is even more conspicuous.
▪ The ventral interradial areas are similar to those of the dorsal side but the scales are usually more conspicuous.
▪ They flower as a rule above the water surface and, unlike the preceding group, they develop more conspicuous flowers.
▪ But they are much more conspicuous.
▪ In fact, it would seem to be quite the reverse: Gaudy males should be more conspicuous to their enemies.
▪ King's Cross is just one of London's more conspicuous examples of planning and democracy in action.
▪ We are only at the beginning of a change which became more conspicuous later.
most
▪ The most conspicuous battleground in this prolonged conflict over the locus of control was the procedure for placing contracts.
▪ The most conspicuous feature of the area is the absence of large rivers.
▪ Among the most conspicuous absentees from the lists of nominees were Ligachev, Medvedev and Yakovlev.
▪ Perhaps the most conspicuous flaw in reports of ecological apocalypse is lack of information.
▪ Perhaps the most conspicuous feature of the early 790s, however, was the often uneasy relations between the two rulers.
▪ What was most conspicuous here was the absence of war, even any hint of war.
▪ The office has no plans to tackle some of the most conspicuous discriminatory practices against women.
▪ Perhaps the most conspicuous is the large waggon door.
so
▪ The creamy-white leaves are so conspicuous that the flowers hardly show up at all but the fragrance is breath-taking.
▪ In no direction was the ability of McClellan so conspicuous as in organizing.
very
▪ White on tail very conspicuous in flight.
▪ They seemed very conspicuous, and very beautiful.
▪ Such fruits have high levels of protein and fat and are not very conspicuous.
▪ It pays these creatures to be very conspicuous indeed.
■ NOUN
absence
▪ And finally, these statements are characterised by a conspicuous absence of facts to bolster such assertions.
consumption
▪ The emergence of stratified societies culminating in states increased conspicuous consumption of precious substances.
▪ But one can only take just so much wretched excess and conspicuous consumption.
▪ What better forum for conspicuous consumption than the locker-room or the golf club car-park?
▪ The creative ones turned their backs on conspicuous consumption and decided in favor of a simpler, personalized lifestyle.
▪ They're young and poor and the patriarchal culture they inherit and the conspicuous consumption of their contemporaries sanctions their irresponsibility.
▪ Even so, a significant number of takeover bids were probably no more than a form of corporate conspicuous consumption.
▪ Similarly, conspicuous consumption or display is now regarded as an acceptable form of behaviour.
▪ Foreign imports such as colour television sets and hi-fi systems cram shop windows, catering to demands for conspicuous consumption.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Cuzco's few tourists are conspicuous as they explore the old cobbled streets.
▪ Downtown business owners say they want the city's homeless shelter moved to a less conspicuous location.
▪ It was a small country town, and Lauren looked very conspicuous in her fashionable New York clothes.
▪ Johnson received a medal for conspicuous gallantry.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A conspicuous, stationary owl is a major target for mobbing.
▪ I don't want them stabling their mounts here, it'd be too conspicuous.
▪ If so, this series is unlikely to have been conspicuous after the third quarter of the second century.
▪ In fact, it would seem to be quite the reverse: Gaudy males should be more conspicuous to their enemies.
▪ In fact, they are conspicuous by their absence.
▪ In no direction was the ability of McClellan so conspicuous as in organizing.
▪ Perhaps the most conspicuous example of this well-intentioned foolishness is the minimum wage.
▪ They flower as a rule above the water surface and, unlike the preceding group, they develop more conspicuous flowers.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Conspicuous

Conspicuous \Con*spic"u*ous\, a. [L. conspicuus, fr. conspicere to get sight of, to perceive; con- + spicere, specere, to look. See Spy]

  1. Open to the view; obvious to the eye; easy to be seen; plainly visible; manifest; attracting the eye.

    It was a rock Of alabaster, piled up to the clouds, Conspicious far.
    --Milton.

    Conspicious by her veil and hood, Signing the cross, the abbess stood.
    --Sir W. Scott.

  2. Obvious to the mental eye; easily recognized; clearly defined; notable; prominent; eminent; distinguished; as, a conspicuous excellence, or fault.

    A man who holds a conspicuous place in the political, ecclesiastical, and literary history of England.
    --Macaulay.

    Syn: Distinguished; eminent; famous; illustrious; prominent; celebrated. See Distinguished. -- Con*spic"u*ous*ly, adv. -- Con*spic"u*ous*ness, n.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
conspicuous

1540s, from Latin conspicuus "visible, open to view, striking," from conspicere "to look at, observe, see, notice," from com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + specere (see scope (n.1)). Phrase conspicuous by its absence (1859) is said to be from Tacitus ("Annals" iii.76), in a passage about certain images: "sed præfulgebant ... eo ipso quod effigies eorum non visebantur."

Wiktionary
conspicuous

a. obvious or easy to notice.

WordNet
conspicuous
  1. adj. obvious to the eye or mind; "a tower conspicuous at a great distance"; "wore conspicuous neckties"; "made herself conspicuous by her exhibitionistic preening" [syn: obvious] [ant: inconspicuous]

  2. without any attempt at concealment; completely obvious; "open disregard of the law"; "open family strife"; "open hostility"; "a blatant appeal to vanity"; "a blazing indiscretion" [syn: blatant, blazing, open]

Wikipedia

Usage examples of "conspicuous".

Conspicuous among them was Marcus Morton, who had been Governor and one of our ablest Supreme Court judges, and his son, afterward Chief Justice, then just rising into distinction as a lawyer.

When in the predawn hours of January 27, a terrible fire ripped through the home and shop of the Philadelphia printer and publisher of the Federal Gazette, Andrew Brown, taking the lives of his wife and children, Adams was conspicuous among the men handing up buckets to fight the blaze.

Again, in the Arunta tribe mourners smear themselves with white pipeclay, and the motive for this custom is said to be to render themselves more conspicuous, so that the ghost may see and be satisfied that he is being properly mourned for.

The groundcar easing its way toward Commander Blenheim through moderate traffic was of a type unremarkable on the streets of the Fortress, though it would have been conspicuous almost anywhere else.

The bloodred stripe of the Order of the Lion was conspicuous on the piping of their trousers, and though they were dressed in their formal finery, each of the men wore his working weapons and armor of simple, battle-tested steel.

Knowing that if she went to their home her Tuareg garb would make her conspicuous to the ubiquitous Bokharan spies, she had sent a message saying that she would come to their busy fabric shop, where she would blend into the steady stream of people.

Gordon Palmer and Liversidge were conspicuous winners, Broadhead a conspicuous loser.

The moon was attending to business in the section of sky where it belonged, and the trees was making shadows on the ground according to science and nature, and there was a kind of conspicuous hullabaloo going on in the bushes between the bullbats and the orioles and the jack-rabbits and other feathered insects of the forest.

A safety pin adorns a conspicuous spot on the front of his unironed shirt, handy for removing chonta palm thorns from his feet.

His valor and dexterity were conspicuous in the Colchian war: from Anastasius he received the command of the Anatolian legions, and by the suffrage of the soldiers he was raised to the empire with the general applause of the Roman world.

His ability, his party devotion, his fearless services as the War Governor of a State which was disturbed with tumult and sedition, his conspicuous part in the Reconstruction contests in the Senate, all marked him as entitled to great consideration.

Union against aggression or decadence, is one of the most conspicuous features in the debates of the various State Conventions by which the Constitution was ratified.

Conspicuous in black clothes and white shirt-sleeves, the Rector was hewing with an axe at the boarding of a cowhouse, the door end of which was already in flames, and his voice could be heard above the tumult shouting directions to which nobody paid any heed.

Cruciferae, Cucurbitaceae, Githago, and Beta, never last even for a week, to any conspicuous degree.

Among them were several young women of the Blessed Damozel school, who wore flowing garments of sap-green or orche, or puffed raiment of Venetian red, and among whom the cartwheel hat, the Elizabethan sleeve, and the Toby frill were conspicuous.