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Monday March 21, 2005

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furbelow \FUR-buh-low\ , noun:
1. A pleated or gathered flounce on a woman's garment; a ruffle.
2. Something showy or superfluous; a bit of showy ornamentation.

In a season of ruffles, frills and furbelows, simple cuts in neutral shades stand out.
-- "Designers Head for Neutral Territory", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 27, 1997

Patience is required to get past some of the director's more baroque cinematic touches, decorating the story's dark center with visual furbelows . . . and aural gimmicks.
-- Lisa Schwarzbaum, "Movies: The Evil That Men Do", Entertainment Weekly, October 23, 1998

It is a story that, for all its hyper-animatedness, all its flips and furbelows of style, is confusing and wearisome.
-- Christine Stansell, "Details, Details", New Republic, December 10, 2001

Furbelow is perhaps an alteration of Italian faldella.

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for furbelow

 

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