meretricious
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌmɛɹɪˈtɹɪʃəs/
ipa: /ˌmɛɹəˈtɹɪʃəs/
rhymes: -ɪʃəs
Forms: form: more meretricious
form: most meretricious
Etymology: From Latin meretrīcius, from meretrīx (“harlot, prostitute”), from mereō (“earn, deserve, merit”) (English merit) + -trīx (“(female agent)”) (English -trix).
Senses: examples: text: I discovered even, by his conversation, when intoxicated that his favourites were wantons of the lowest class, who could by their vulgar, indecent mirth, which he called nature, rouse his sluggish spirits. Meretricious ornaments and manners were necessary to attract his attention.
ref: 1798, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, “[Maria: or, The] Wrongs of Woman”, in W[illiam] Godwin, editor, Posthumous Works of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […]; and G[eorge,] G[eorge] and J[ohn] Robinson, […], →OCLC:
text: It might be reasonably objected elsewhere, that some of the tombs are meretricious and too fanciful; but the general brightness seems to justify it here; and Mount Vesuvius, separated from them by a lovely slope of ground, exalts and saddens the scene.
ref: 1846, Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy, London: […] Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC:
text: Gloriani’s statues were florid and meretricious; they looked like magnified goldsmith’s work.
ref: 1875 January–December, Henry James, Jr., chapter III, in Roderick Hudson, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., published 1876, →OCLC; republished as Roderick Hudson (EBook #176), U.S.A.: Project Gutenberg, 18 September 2016:
text: There is nothing showy or meretricious about the man.
ref: 1885, William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham:
text: What is art beside love? I respect and applaud your indifference to fine poetry when you can contemplate the meretricious charms of this young person.
ref: 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XLII, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:
text: He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: When I lifted my eyes from the page, there was none of the meretricious argument London always offers that the sole real purpose in life is to hustle for a buck.
ref: 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 164:
text: Murrow's later death from lung cancer was both tragic and ironic, for during World War II Murrow had been an articulate opponent of meretricious balance in reporting.
ref: 2010, Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway, chapter 1, in Merchants of Doubt:
synonyms: specious
glosses: Tastelessly gaudy; superficially attractive but having in reality no value or substance; falsely alluring.
topics: law
glosses: Involving unlawful sexual connection or lack of consent by at least one party (said of a romantic relationship).
glosses: Of, or relating to prostitutes or prostitution.
Synonyms: sense: tastelessly showy
word: brassy
sense: tastelessly showy
word: cheap
sense: tastelessly showy
word: flashy
sense: tastelessly showy
word: garish
sense: tastelessly showy
word: gaudy
sense: tastelessly showy
word: gimcrack
sense: tastelessly showy
word: tacky
sense: tastelessly showy
word: tatty
sense: tastelessly showy
word: tawdry
sense: tastelessly showy
word: trashy
Derived terms: meretriciously
meretriciousness
unmeretricious
Related terms: merit