meretricious : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: meretricious	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for meretricious
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
meretricious adj like or relating to a prostitute; "meretricious relationships" tastelessly showy; "a flash car"; "a flashy ring"; "garish colors"; "a gaudy costume"; "loud sport shirts"; "a meretricious yet stylish book"; "tawdry ornaments" Synonym(s): brassy, cheap, flash, flashy, garish, gaudy, gimcrack, loud, meretricious, tacky, tatty, tawdry, trashy based on pretense; deceptively pleasing; "the gilded and perfumed but inwardly rotten nobility"; "meretricious praise"; "a meretricious argument" Synonym(s): gilded, meretricious, specious
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Meretricious \Mer`etri"cious\, a. [L. meretricius, from meretrix, -icis, a prostitute, lit., one who earns money, i. e., by prostitution, fr. merere to earn, gain. See {Merit}.] 1. Of or pertaining to prostitutes; having to do with harlots; lustful; as, meretricious* traffic. 2. Resembling the arts of a harlot; alluring by false show; gaudily and deceitfully ornamental; tawdry; as, meretricious dress or ornaments. -- {Mer`etri"ciously}, adv. -- {Mer`etri"ciousness}, n.