adjective
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Etymology
Origin of trashy
Explanation
Something trashy is cheap and tacky or badly made, like the trashy gossip magazines your friend reads. Since the early 17th century, trashy has been used to mean "worthless, or resembling trash." Use this adjective for gaudy or flashy things, like trashy costume jewelry, or things with no perceived value, like a trashy novel or movie. Don't use trashy to describe a person — it's offensive to talk about someone as being without value, worthless, or inferior.
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:
The fights were still good, even if White’s matchups started prioritizing personality conflicts over actual talent, and the theatrics had a trashy sort of appeal I could get behind.
From Slate ● Jun. 14, 2026
In it, Slayyyter explores her hometown roots, family dynamics and desire at her most trashy, mournful, hungry and loud; as the “Worst Girl in America,” Slayyyter is raw.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2026
A disco ball, aka “myriad reflector,” can turn any trashy hellhole into a party space, especially if you don’t look too closely.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 17, 2026
The song that'll take them over the top is a trashy pop earworm called Internet Girl.
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2025
Baz was smart and trying to be funny to cheer us up and said we shouldn’t worry and found some trashy paperbacks for us to read while we were hanging around all day.
From "How I Live Now" by Meg Rosoff
I mean, there were trashier books as well.
From New York Times ● Jun. 22, 2023
That’s understandable—Thirteen Women is a trashy adaptation of an even trashier novel, which is an awfully thin hook to hang the entire concept of unrealized show business ambitions from—but it’s also a shame.
From Slate ● May 11, 2020
“The Golden Globes are to the Oscars what Kim Kardashian is to Kate Middleton. Bit louder, bit trashier, bit drunker, and more easily bought.”
From The Guardian ● Jan. 7, 2018
Sunday night’s VMAs — a night even trashier than the Golden Globes, of course — would follow.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2017
“The Girl on the Train” is the trashier, paperback version.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 4, 2016
Goldman Sachs pointed out in a recent report that a basket of heavily shorted stocks, often considered the trashiest of the trash, had surged 24% in just the past month.
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2025
Murdoch made Povich a famous man by bankrolling one of the trashiest shows on TV.
From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2022
He appeared on “The Love Boat” TV series, which was the trashiest thing of the ’80s.
From New York Times ● Jul. 8, 2022
Nearly everything on television is a guilty pleasure, a concept useful to viewers who need to explain away their addictions to certain shows, especially the trashiest stuff.
From Washington Post
They received the best and most judicious instruction during school hours, and devoured the trashiest novels during recess.
From Selected Stories of Bret Harte by Harte, Bret
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.
