an intense but short-lived fashion; craze
a personal idiosyncrasy or whim
1825–35; noun use of dial. fad to look after things, busy oneself with trifles, back formation from obsolete faddle to play with, fondle. See fiddle
If it’s all the rage, everybody’s into it, your parents don’t get it, and teenage girls across the globe are trying to outdo each other with it, it’s officially a fad. From hairstyles to hula hoops to saying “that’s hot,” fads are known to rise to crazed levels of popularity seemingly overnight. But they fade out just as fast, leaving late adopters with outdated sayings and some seriously uncool shoes. Much like a fad itself, no one has any real idea where this word came from. But it’s still in fashion some 144 years later.
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Only three months after its release, J.J Fad members were among the first class of hip-hop artists to be nominated for a Grammy.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 11, 2024
Bluebird's rebirth on Loch Fad in August 2018 saw tensions ease as Miss Campbell backed its restorer's call for it to be maintained as a working craft.
From BBC • Mar. 7, 2024
“This happened right in front of my eyes as we were on a 24-hour watch,” said Kelly Fad, the zoo’s general curator who also witnessed the birth.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 6, 2024
The gig also featured members of Throbbing Gristle and Fad Gadget.
From The Guardian • May 18, 2020
For example, headlines in the San Francisco Chronicle for May 15, 1910, include “Comet Camera as Big as a House,” “Comet Comes and Husband Reforms,” “Comet Parties Now Fad in New York.”
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
