adj. (common).—Showy; meretricious; sham. [In the 18th century Christopher Pinchbeck, a London watchmaker, invented an amalgam much used in cheap jewellery.]
1782. WALPOLE, Letters, viii. 310. The highwayman … insisted on more. The poor girl, terrified, gave him not only her own PINCHBECK watch, but her grandmother’s gold one.
1886. Westminster Review, Oct., 795. Most of these men were of the school of Molyneux, and theirs was PINCHBECK patriotism.
1901. Punch, 25 Dec., 452, 1. The Irish Party, under the leadership of a PINCHBECK Parnell, have given themselves away.
