Showing results for "guilty pleasure"

guilty pleasure

American

[gil-tee plezh-er] / ˈgɪl ti ˈplɛʒ ər /

noun

an activity, habit, food, etc., that a person feels shame or guilt for enjoying, often because they feel they will be judged by others.

TV shows meant for teens are a guilty pleasure many adults just can't get enough of.
Eating healthfully is important, but treating yourself to a guilty pleasure from time to time is definitely not a crime.

Etymology

Origin of guilty pleasure

First recorded in 1680–90

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.

See Examples For:

guilty pleasure

Share your souvenir guilty pleasure with me at [email protected] and we’ll publish some in a future newsletter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

Treat the Trader Joe’s freezer aisle — or your local equivalent — as infrastructure, not a guilty pleasure.

From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2026

Dawson's Creek was my guilty pleasure in the late 90s.

From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2026

People eat these shows like candy, and while candy can rot your teeth and put on pounds, it can also deliver a jolt of guilty pleasure and feed a sugar addiction.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2026

A single guilty pleasure song by Justin Bieber.

From "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023