adjective
Other Word Forms
- trashily adverb
- trashiness noun
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.
The song that'll take them over the top is a trashy pop earworm called Internet Girl.
From BBC • Dec. 29, 2025
It’s trashy noir yet elevated and totally dead-eyed — as if Flannery O’Connor took a crack at writing a James M. Cain story.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 4, 2025
For the record, Buffalo chicken wings are messy but never trashy.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 23, 2025
It would rather binge-watch thousands of hours of trashy TV shows than deal with the dithering crew of space hippies to which it’s been assigned.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 11, 2025
And she didn’t need to spend her mornings watching trashy television when she could be sleeping.
From "We'll Fly Away" by Bryan Bliss
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.
