Definition of "showy" [show•y]

• Making an imposing or aesthetically pleasing display; striking: showy flowers. (adjective)
• Displaying brilliance and virtuosity of ability or performance: a showy violin solo. (adjective)
• Marked by or prone to ostentatious, often tasteless display; flashy. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Its flowers are used in showy tropical arrangements."
• "Howland kept getting questions during the tournament about how the gritty, slowdown style was playing in showy, glitzy L.A., and how the region's plethora of high-scoring high school stars will receive recruiting calls from the nation's new defensive powerhouse."
• "But plenty were cowboys, too, and upon emerging from the Green Zone they drove in showy clusters of SUVs, nose to tail, cutting off traffic and careening down the streets as if they were taking fire."