trumpery
Americannoun
plural
trumperies-
something without use or value; rubbish; trash; worthless stuff.
-
nonsense; twaddle.
His usual conversation is pure trumpery.
-
Archaic. worthless finery.
adjective
noun
-
foolish talk or actions
-
a useless or worthless article; trinket
adjective
Etymology
Origin of trumpery
1425–75; late Middle English trompery deceit < Middle French tromperie, equivalent to tromp ( er ) to deceive + -erie -ery
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.
Today, trumpery can refer to just about any sort of balderdash, but it used to refer specifically to religious or woo-woo ideas.
From Salon • Mar. 4, 2016
Though it sounds odd today, the OED has examples of trumpery brooch, trumpery performance, trumpery new house, trumpery rhetorician and trumpery quarrel.
From Salon • Mar. 4, 2016
It was both trumpeted as a global achievement and dismissed as overly commercialized "trumpery."
From Seattle Times • Aug. 9, 2012
When Upstairs, Downstairs was first broadcast on Sunday 10 October 1971, Britain was struggling with decimalisation and that new-fangled trumpery of a gaudy Satan, colour telly.
From The Guardian • Dec. 24, 2010
Do not think that at any time the little trumpery intelligence this place affords can interrupt my labors, while it amuses your Grace.
From Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 6 by Lockhart, J. G. (John Gibson)
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.
