bauble (2), bawble, bable

[From Fr. babiole a toy, a bauble, a trifle, a gewgaw, a plaything.] IMG:content-1128.png:[blocks in formation] "If, in our contest, we do not interchange useful notions, we shall traffick toys and baubles."-Government of the Tongue. (b) A composition of little value. "Our author then, to please you in your way, Presents you now a bawble of a play, In gingling rhyme."-Granville. (c) A sham virtue; a virtue attributed to one by people who look from a distance, but which would on closer inspection prove counterfeit. "A prince, the moment he is crown'd, Inherits every virtue round, As emblems of the sovereign pow'r, Like other bawbles of the Tow'r."-Swift. 2. Of persons: One small in size and unimportant. A contemptuous or pretendedly contemptuous term for a wife or other female. "She haunts me in every place. I was the other day talking on the sea-bank with some Venetians; and thither comes the bauble, and, by this hand, falls me thus about my neck."- Shakesp. Othello , iv. 1. B. Attributively: Toy, miniature; showy, but not much worth. "And where the gardener Robin, day by day, Drew me to school along the public way, Delighted with my hauble each.. Vowper: On the Receipt of my Mother's Picture,