Furbelow
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A frill, flounce, or ruffle, as on clothing; a decorative piece of fabric, especially one gathered or pleated as into a ruffle, etc.
"I do not think that from the blissful time when I was sixteen, up to my present solemn five-and-thirty, I could ever have been tempted to look a second time at any miss under the chaperonship of such a dame as that feather and furbelow lady."
- 2 a strip of pleated material used as a decoration or a trim wordnet
- 3 A small, showy ornamentation. broadly
"Within, among the bric-a-brac and furbelows, he found Miss Painter seated in a redundant purple armchair with the incongruous air of a horseman bestriding a heavy mount."
- 1 To adorn with a furbelow; to ornament. transitive
"Mrs. Palmer, and her furbelowed daughters-in-law, who will probably carry enough of the scarlet fever about them, to remind you unpleasantly of the officiousness which preserved the lives of three daughters, when two might have been parted with advantageously enough."
Example
More examples"I do not think that from the blissful time when I was sixteen, up to my present solemn five-and-thirty, I could ever have been tempted to look a second time at any miss under the chaperonship of such a dame as that feather and furbelow lady."
Etymology
Corruption of falbala; first attested in the late 1600s or early 1700s. Not related to fur.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.