1760. Foote, Minor, Act i. Dine at twelve, and regale, upon a gaudy day, with buns and beer at Islington.
1803. Gradus ad Cantab., p. 122. Cut lectures … give gaudies and spreads.
1820. Lamb, Elia (Oxford in the Vacation). Methought I a little grudged at the coalition of the better Jude with Simon—clubbing (as it were) their sanctities together, to make up one poor gaudy-day between them.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. We had a carouse to your honour … we fought, too, to finish off the gaudy.
1878. Besant and Rice, By Celia’s Arbour, ch. xxxiii. Champagne … goes equally well with a simple luncheon of cold chicken, and with the most elaborate gaudy.
Adj. (colloquial).—Good; frolicsome; festive. Cf., Shakspeare’s ‘Let’s have one other gaudy night.’—Ant. and Cleo., iii, 13.
1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 176. ‘Yes,’ answered the trainer, slowly, ‘he’s right enough; but a Leger’s a Leger, and I don’t think they are likely to give him a very gaudy chance.’
Neat but not gaudy, as the devil said when he painted his bottom pink, and tied up his tail with pea-green, phr. (common).—A locution used to ancient ladies dressed in flaming colours.
Gauge. See Gage.
To get the gauge of, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To divine an intention; to read a character; to size, (or reckon) up (q.v.). Hence, That’s about the gauge of it = That’s a fair description.