Etymology Corruption of falbala; first attested in the late 1600s or early 1700s. Not related to fur.
1
A frill, flounce, or ruffle, as on clothing; a decorative piece of fabric, especially one gathered or pleated as into a ruffle, etc.
I do not think that from the blissful time when I was sixteen, up to my present solemn five-and-thirty, I could ever have been tempted to look a second time at any miss under the chaperonship of such a dame as that feather and furbelow lady.1839, Frances Trollope, chapter I, in The Widow Barnaby. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 24–25:
All the other furbelows, and portions of this one^([this Medusa]) that lay below the expansion, floated as usual through the water, except that on some occasions an accessory power was obtained by pressing a portion of another furbelow to the side of the glass and making it adhere just like the portion that was exposed to the surface of the air.1863, John George Wood, The Illustrated Natural History, page 745:
4 more examples
“Well, I don’t know that fifty is much for a dress, with all the furbelows and notions you have to have to finish it off these days.”1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, Little Women: […], 2nd part, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:
Winterbourne stood looking after her; and as she moved away, drawing her muslin furbelows over the gravel, said to himself that she had the tournure of a princess.1879, Henry James, Daisy Miller, London: Harper & Brothers:
Those dresses are good, sensible, serviceable dresses, without any frills or furbelows about them, and they’re all you’ll get this summer.1908 June, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, →OCLC:
Each plant has several oarweed fronds on the top of a flat stem, well adapted to swaying in one direction but rigid in the other; along the rigid edges, where the water flows and eddies, develop the wavy furbelows.1964, E. J. H. Corner, The Life of Plants, University of Chicago Press, published 2002, page 76:
2
Broadly A small, showy ornamentation.
Within, among the bric-a-brac and furbelows, he found Miss Painter seated in a redundant purple armchair with the incongruous air of a horseman bestriding a heavy mount.1912, Edith Wharton, The Reef, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company:
The band played ceaselessly. Even when the other instruments were resting the pianist kept up his monotonous vamping, with a dreary furbelow for embellishment here and there, to which some few of the dancers continued to shuffle round the floor.1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 4, in The Subtle Minotaur:
Etymology Corruption of falbala; first attested in the late 1600s or early 1700s. Not related to fur.
1
To adorn with a furbelow; to ornament.
Mrs. Palmer, and her furbelowed daughters-in-law, who will probably carry enough of the scarlet fever about them, to remind you unpleasantly of the officiousness which preserved the lives of three daughters, when two might have been parted with advantageously enough.1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “(please specify the page)”, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, pages 224–225: