What's the difference between ostentatious and showy?

Ostentatious


Definition:

  • (a.) Fond of, or evincing, ostentation; unduly conspicuous; pretentious; boastful.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Daryush 'Roosh V' Valizadeh cancels neo-masculinist meetings over safety Read more Roosh and company encountered such uniform hostility because their views are ostentatiously vile.
  • (2) He was ostentatious in assembling a multi-faith support cast and pointed in his insistence on unity.
  • (3) The popular image of yakuza families as ostentatiously wealthy and loyal to the core bears little resemblance to Tendo's early experiences of poverty and betrayal.
  • (4) But BrewDog’s astonishing growth may raise the uncomfortable possibility that in an age of media-savvy and brand-sceptical digital natives, ostentatious displays of “authenticity” – known to some as acting like pretentious hipster douchebags – may have become a necessary condition for success.
  • (5) Eighteen months ago the group sprayed designs inspired by the British graffiti artist Banksy on walls of ostentatious new houses believed to have been built with the profits of the £3bn a year Afghan drug trade.
  • (6) Trump approves of working with autocrats, at least, and would probably make fast friends with the galaxy’s less reputable leaders – especially those who share his interests, eg crimelord Jabba the Hutt, who lives in an ostentatious palace , loves parties , demeans women and feeds a literal Rancor .
  • (7) Farage told LBC’s Nick Ferrari: “I think that given that some people feel very embarrassed by [breastfeeding], it isn’t too difficult to breastfeed a baby in a way that’s not openly ostentatious.” If the hotel asked a nursing mother to cover up, he said: “Frankly, that’s up to Claridge’s.
  • (8) The paper alleges: "It was well-known that corruption among politicians in the Turks and Caicos Islands was endemic and it was inherently unlikely that Mr Misick could have achieved such apparent wealth and pursued such an ostentatious lifestyle while being premier, without having being corrupt.
  • (9) The current South African president, Jacob Zuma , has also made ostentatious shows of reverence to "Madiba".
  • (10) The aide said Lebedev was unhappy about the ostentatious nature of the raid, and the use of masked men carrying serious guns.
  • (11) Forster sometimes thought that King's was a bit too ostentatious, and that its buildings had a tendency to say "look at me."
  • (12) It is comfortable without being ostentatious and with no concession to "designer living".
  • (13) The exhibition was put under a boycott by some German industrialists and the German pharmacists from Bohemia ostentatiously rejected any participation.
  • (14) At first glance, there is nothing overtly ostentatious about this quiet road, where the average property was last year valued at around £41m, more than 165 times the value of the average UK home (£248,863).
  • (15) An ostentatious leather-bound album with Kniga Dlya Dam embossed in gold on the cover opens to reveal a Chinese silk drawing of an entwined couple.
  • (16) "Ostentatiously earnest but low on talent, horrible to watch, and pretty horrible to listen to as well."
  • (17) Tom Neenan and Nish Kumar's investigation into the fate of the written word may appear highbrow on the surface, what with its ostentatious musings on literature and aesthetics, but that's just a cover for an hour of engaging silliness, packed with inventive devices and satisfyingly funny gags.
  • (18) Overbearing, ostentatious, and incongruous, don't you think?"
  • (19) The club's website says it caters to the "nouveau riche" and invites guests to "slip on your diamante dancing shoes or designer suit and dance the night away at the most ostentatious venue in Joburg".
  • (20) Mikheil Saakashvili: 'Ukraine's government has no vision for reform' Read more Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of parliament, called Rasmussen’s appointment a “ostentatious show” with no “military or even practical purpose”.

Showy


Definition:

  • (a.) Making a show; attracting attention; presenting a marked appearance; ostentatious; gay; gaudy.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Why on earth launch a showy new pound coin with so much fanfare, when the real news is supposed to be the UK's superb growth projections, absurdly generous new subsidies for childcare and a thoroughly welcome rise in the income tax threshold, courtesy of Nick Clegg?
  • (2) It is simply a question of following the steps carefully to produce a brilliantly showy pudding.
  • (3) Shilton springs a long way to his left to catch the ball – a slightly showy save but still a good one.
  • (4) Born in 1973 in Honiton, Devon, the future champion was "never showy, but quietly confident," according to her mother, Linda Davis.
  • (5) The result is a mash-up of 9 To 5, Strangers On A Train and The Hangover, and as usual, Bateman's dry wit is an oasis of calm in a movie full of showy comic turns from Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell and others.
  • (6) Similar anticipation by Baines prevented Fellaini scoring a second after a pirouette with the ball in the Everton area, then when Rashford played Valencia in on the overlap with a showy disguised pass, the United player had to delay his cross because not a single red shirt was waiting in the box.
  • (7) The same instinct for the simple, the dramatic and the showy governs his approach to recasting school exams, of which his announcement last week on A-levels was the latest example.
  • (8) "He's very calm and reassuring and he's not showy," said a senior television news executive.
  • (9) "It's not because I'm being showy or precious," she said.
  • (10) There will be some showy changes to domestic law, which other EU members will disapprove of, but can tolerate.
  • (11) I’ll be honest – the whole thing has always just seemed a bit sparkly and showy to me.
  • (12) By her own admission this week May is not a “showy politician” who courts the media, gossips about colleagues over lunch or spends time in the watering holes of Westminster.
  • (13) The FA has been buying land next to schools and building pitches: enclosed timber-built, artificial-turfed pitches, paid for by money that might otherwise have ended up in some familiar dead end: unnecessarily showy mega-stadiums, executive salaries, another Bugatti in the garage.
  • (14) This might tell us more about the company Amis keeps than the views of the general population; especially if you tire of these showy contributions from someone who spends most of his time somewhere else.
  • (15) In a recent Guardian review, they were deemed "big bold showy headphones ... with lacklustre sound" while What Hi-Fi said they were a "one-trick trendy pony" with sound that lacked detail or articulation.
  • (16) Consumers are polarised between bargain prices for basic clothes and trading up for more showy clothes – this may change, and Primark’s foray into markets like the USA adds an element of future risk.” At Primark’s owner, ABF, profits before tax halved to £213m.
  • (17) Meticulously presented, though contrasts of textures and flavours sometimes go too far down the showy molecular route.
  • (18) It is not a showy cry, designed to elicit sympathy.
  • (19) It really breathes as it hobbles along, and yet it's never showy nor overly optimistic.
  • (20) Anthony Lane, writing in the New Yorker, laid his cards on the table: 'If you don't get this cut, if you think it's cheesy or showy or over the top, and if something inside you doesn't flare up and burn at the spectacle that Lean has conjured, then you might as well give up the movies.'