trophy wife
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of trophy wife
An Americanism dating back to 1985–90
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.
She got small parts in “Mad Men” and “Rent,” but has said she “was typecast as a trophy wife and kind of put into this box.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
Demi Moore co-stars as a late oil baron’s trophy wife who’s trying to initiate a hostile takeover, and Sam Elliott joins the cast as the father of Thornton’s character.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 31, 2025
Since we’re child-free and I already finished college, I suppose you could call me a trophy wife, but firstly, I’m nonbinary, and secondly, that’s the rub.
From Slate ● Dec. 2, 2022
The elderly mother of the trophy wife of a tetchy physician just up and dies.
From New York Times ● Jul. 22, 2021
As in, she was just emblematic of all first wives everywhere who did everything for their husbands and then got dumped for a trophy wife.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2019
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.
