ppl. a. Also 6–7 tinceld. [In sense 1, app. representing F. étincelé: see TENSEL sb.3; in sense 2, mostly f. TINSEL v.2 + -ED1.]
1. Made to sparkle or glitter with gold or silver thread, brocade, or embroidery. b. Embellished with gold or silver leaf.
1532–3. Act 24 Hen. VIII., c. 13. No Man, vnder the State of an Erle [shall] … weare … any Clothe of Golde or Syluer, or tynseld Saten.
1545. Rates of Customs, c iv b. Satten tynseld with gold the yarde XIII. x. IIII. d. … Satten of bruges counterfete tynselde the yarde III. s. IIII. d.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 146. Their out Garment or Vest … of cloth of gold and Tinselled.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. lvi. 244. Figured sattin tinselled and overcast with golden threads.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, VI. 3. Tinselled hobby-horses, gilt gingerbread.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., v. (1856), 40. Some of these huts were garnished with little tinseled pictures.
1871. Rossetti, Last Confession, 387. Before some new Madonna gaily decked, Tinselled and gewgawed, a slight German toy, I saw her kneel.
2. transf. and fig.; in later use often depreciative or contemptuous (cf. b).
c. 1620. Convert Soule, in Farr, S. P. Jas. I. (1847), 89. Then dream of shadowes, make thy coate of tinsel’d cobwebs.
1648. Earl of Westmoreland, Otia Sacra (1879), 6. As the Tincell’d Night gives way At th’ opening o’ th’ true Golden Day.
1738. Gentl. Mag., VIII. 521/2. Observe the Gentleman in that gaudy slight French Dress, how he is tinsel’d and pouder’d over.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. 180. Tinselled toy! said I (for he was laced all over).
a. 1774. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 126. Clouds … whose tinselled edges glitter in the western sun.
b. fig. Having a flashy superficial splendor without intrinsic value.
1651. Cleveland, Poems, 4. His tinsil’d metaphors of pelf.
1820. Hazlitt, Lect. Dram. Lit., 144. Beaumont and Fletcher … laid the foundation of the artificial diction and tinselled pomp of the next generation.
