I. (ˈ)ȯr|nāt, (ˈ)ȯ(ə)|-, usu -ād.+V adjective
Etymology: Middle English ornat, from Latin ornatus, past participle of ornare to furnish, embellish; akin to Latin ordinare to order, arrange — more at ordain
1. : marked by elaborate rhetoric or florid style
ornate poems can be more satisfactorily translated than simple ones — Walter Silz
is clear and simple rather than ornate and pompous — Times Literary Supplement
2. : elaborately ornamented : amply or excessively decorated
the most ornate carving and gold of the baroque churches — Lewis Mumford
Synonyms:
ornate , rococo , baroque , flamboyant , florid can mean, in common, elaborately and often pretentiously decorated or designed. ornate can apply to anything heavily adorned or ornamented or conspicuously embellished
the extremely ornate gingerbread architecture of the eighties and nineties, when fanciful scrollwork trim, cupolas, and brackets were in vogue — American Guide Series: Arizona
elaborate and ornate rituals — A.M.Young
stately town houses, ornate with hand-carved woodwork, sparkling chandeliers, elaborate fireplaces, and imported rugs — American Guide Series: Arkansas
a prose simple or ornate as the situation demands — William Peden
rococo , applying originally to an elaborate playful and fanciful 18th century French decorative design, can apply to any similarly elaborate decoration, especially with an ornateness of design (as of furniture, mirror frames) marked by proliferating curves and scrolls, shellwork, and general fancifulness and often extending to anything regarded as overelaborately decorated
the long rococo halls, giddy with plush and whorled designs in gold, were peopled with Roman fragments, white and disassociated; a runner's leg, the chilly half-turned head of a matron stricken at the bosom — Djuna Barnes
the extreme refinement and delicacy of 12th century taste is a little saccharine, a little rococo, with just a hint of something meretricious verging on the tawdry — T.K.Whipple
doesn't mind getting caught out with a rococo phrase or an overstuffed image — Los Angeles (Calif.) Times
baroque , often loosely interchangeable with rococo but from a style of architecture prior to the rococo, suggests more an extravagant massive strength, often grotesqueness, of decorative quality, stressing the ingenious, varied, bizarre, or contorted, often in overintricate interrelationship
a baroque style, it has been called by critics who admired this funeral sumptuousness, this glittering bric-a-brac, this aesthetic perversity — Claude Vigée
a landscape of truly baroque invention, richly variegated and unfailing in its calculated surprises — Times Literary Supplement
baroque poetry with its frigid vehemence, its exhibitionistic forcefulness and false dynamism, its arbitrary twisting and distortions, its carefully arranged denaturalizing of living speech into a dead language, its strained mannerisms and calculated artificialities — H.L.Davis
poetry is baroque. Baroque is tragic, massive and mystical. It is elemental. It demands depth and insight — W.S.Maugham
flamboyant can suggest an ornateness but stresses more an excess of color or bold, daring, conspicuous display
a flair for flamboyant clothes, including red slacks — Time
a man of flamboyant egotism, given to pomposities of speech and absurdities of prose — New Yorker
he indulges in flamboyant gestures and exaggerated strutting — Howard Barnes
the worker's reaction was characterized more by a serious eagerness than a flamboyant enthusiasm — Samuel Liss
florid suggests an overelaboration of rich color, figure of speech, ornamental flourish, and so on, implying showiness and conspicuous embellishment
she would put on the florid costume, fix the gold circlets into the lobes of her ears, slip the garish imitation topaz onto her forefinger — William Fifield
florid oriental imagery — Douglas Bush
florid verbiage — H.G.Wells
contrasting with the simplicity of these gardens was the exotic, florid display of fruit and vegetable stands — Buick Magazine
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English ornaten, from Latin ornatus, past participle of ornare
obsolete : adorn