bric-à-brac

A form of bric-a-brac — Small ornaments and other miscellaneous display items of little value.

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Meanings

nounbric-à-brac (usually uncountable, plural bric-à-brac)
  1. alternativeuncountableusuallyAlternative spelling of bric-a-brac.

    Haven't an affair in the world, […] except a quarrel with a bric-à-brac man.

    1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter LXVII, in Daniel Deronda, volume IV, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book VIII (Fruit and Seed), page 314
    2 more examples

    Yes: I think he is a good fellow: rather miscellaneous and bric-à-brac, but likable.

    1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XLIII, in Middlemarch […], volume III, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book V, page 13

    The papier mâché desk he passed tolerantly as bric-à-brac, but the china-cabinet was dismissed with contempt.

    1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 75
Cite this entry
APA

bric-à-brac. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bric-%C3%A0-brac

MLA

“bric-à-brac.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bric-%C3%A0-brac. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bric-à-brac,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bric-%C3%A0-brac.

Source: bric-à-brac on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.