pabulum
Americannoun
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something that nourishes an animal or vegetable organism; food; nutriment.
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material for intellectual nourishment.
noun
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food
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food for thought, esp when bland or dull
Etymology
Origin of pabulum
1670–80; < Latin pābulum food, nourishment, equivalent to pā ( scere ) to feed (akin to food ) + -bulum noun suffix of instrument
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.
Hidden Valley Renaissance is the ranch dressing of Italian Revival architecture — mostly pabulum, sort of has taste, taken for granted and consumed accordingly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2022
But their observations about love are such pabulum that a passer-by might mistake what their glimpsing for the opener of a "Saturday Night Live" short film parody.
From Salon ● May 15, 2022
Well, at least a 10-minute look when one cuts out all of the promotional pabulum for the cartoon.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 6, 2018
A dozen years later, Epstein describes himself as “allergic” to business school slang, to the kind of pabulum espoused in leadership books.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 1, 2016
Detective stories, melodrama, the glorification of the stale triangle in fiction and drama, the apotheosis of the Apache—what are all these but slight variants of the artistic pabulum furnished by our native merchants in mediocrity?
From Unicorns by James Huneker
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.
