ornate

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɔɹˈneɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪt

Adjective

ornate (comparative more ornate, superlative most ornate)

1. Elaborately ornamented, often to excess.
   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter V, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     The house of Ruthven was a small but ultra-modern limestone affair, between Madison and Fifth ; […]. As a matter of fact its narrow ornate façade presented not a single quiet space that the eyes might rest on after a tiring attempt to follow and codify the arabesques, foliations, and intricate vermiculations of what some disrespectfully dubbed as “near-aissance.”

2. Flashy, flowery or showy.
3. Finely finished, as a style of composition.
   • [1644], [John Milton], Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib, [London: […] Thomas Underhill and/or Thomas Johnson], →OCLC:

     a graceful and ornate rhetoric

Verb

ornate (third-person singular simple present ornates, present participle ornating, simple past and past participle ornated)

1. (obsolete) To adorn or honour (someone or something).
   • 1552, Hughe Latymer [i.e., Hugh Latimer], Augustine Bernher, compiler, “The Second Sermon”, in Certayn Godly Sermons, Made uppon the Lords Prayer, […], London: […] John Day, […], published 1562, →OCLC, folio 13, verso:

     And truely thoſe that lyue in the feare of god, (conſydering that they ſerue not only their carnal maiſters, but God hymſelfe,) they be in a good caſe: but they may not bee eye ſeruauntes. […] Saincte Paule woulde haue them to lyue ſo, that they maye ornate and ſanctifye the name of God.

Verb

ornate

1. inflection of ornare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Participle

ornate f pl

1. feminine plural of ornato