Astroturf
Americannoun
Usage
What does Astroturf mean? Astroturf is a trademarked brand name for a type of artificial surface used for sports fields that’s supposed to look and feel like grass. When used this way, it’s often capitalized. The brand itself styles it as AstroTurf. This sense of the word has come to be frequently used as a generic term for any artificial turf (in the same way that other brand names have been genericized, such as xerox). When used this way, it’s often seen in lowercase (astroturf). Astroturf is also a slang term meaning to fake the appearance of popular support for something, such as a cause or product. The practice of doing so is called astroturfing and a person who does this can be called an astroturfer. Example: One clue that people are trying to astroturf support for something is that a lot of posts about the topic come from new accounts with usernames that look like they were randomly generated.
Etymology
Origin of Astroturf
C20: from Astro(dome) , the baseball stadium in Texas where it was first used + turf
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Appeared in the March 27, 2026, print edition as 'The Astroturf Podcasts'.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 26, 2026
"We've played sub-regionals not that long ago, on Astroturf wickets in Rome," he told AFP.
From Barron's ● Feb. 17, 2026
I pass an elderly couple playing frisbee with their grandkids on a lawn so uniform and green it might be Astroturf, stewing in bitterness, and think, I'm like Charles Wallace.
From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2023
Socially distant groupings of white director’s chairs situated on an Astroturf floor in front of two colossal TV screens set side by side.
From New York Times ● Aug. 19, 2021
Only Onofre Martinez’s three-legged German shepherd avoided the mud by refusing to stray from the Chateau Martinez’s Astroturf lawn.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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.
