noun

1. Historical a cloth of silk, wool, etc. interwoven with glittering threads of gold, silver, or other metal
2. thin sheets, strips, or threads of tin, metal foil, etc., used for inexpensive decoration
3. something that glitters like precious metal but has little worth; empty show; sham splendor

Etymology: aphetic < MFr estincelle, a spark, spangle: see stencil

adjective

1. made of or decorated with tinsel
2. having sham splendor; showy; gaudy; tawdry

transitive verb tinseled -·seled or tinselled -·selled, tinseling -·sel·ing or tinselling -·sel·ling

1. to make glitter with or as with tinsel
2. to give a false appearance of splendor to