meretricious

• “Persiani is more generally a favorite here; she is indeed skilful both as an actress and in the management of her voice, but I find her expression meretricious, her singing mechanical.”

  At Home And Abroad Or, Things And Thoughts In America and Europe

• “The sphere opposite to it is called meretricious with such women, and adulterous with such men; and as such men and women are in hell, this sphere is from thence: but of this sphere there is also much variety, and hence there are several species of it; and such a species is attracted and appropriated by a man (_vir_) as is agreeable to him, and as is conformable and correspondent with his peculiar temper and disposition.”

  The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love

• “Also in the Telegraph, David Selbourne wields the bludgeon with tremendous style, although I'm going to have to look up 'meretricious'.”

  Archive 2005-05-22

• “It is this same taste, which, in that solemn commemoration of the death of their king, the _service solennel_ for Louis XVI. contrived to introduce a species of affected parade, -- a detailed and theatrical sort of grief, -- a kind of meretricious mummery of sorrow, which banished all the feelings, and almost completely destroyed the impression which such a scene in any other country would inevitably have produced.”

  Travels in France during the years 1814-15 Comprising a residence at Paris, during the stay of the allied armies, and at Aix, at the period of the landing of Bonaparte, in two volumes.

• “Moreover, as the parties 'subsequent cohabitation could not be termed "meretricious," and the relationship between the parties was not tainted by the fact that the male partner was married to someone else at that time; (2) an agreement between a cohabitating adult couple is enforceable to the extent it is not based upon a relationship proscribed by law, or upon a promise to marry.”

  Recently Uploaded Slideshows

• “There is now a disproportionate amount of meretricious material aimed at appealing to public prurience, most of which revolves around the philandering of celebrities," he argues.”

  The Guardian: Privacy decisions can't just be left to judges and politicians

• “So an insincere smile becomes cheesy; from that anything shallow, phony or meretricious.”

  The Guardian: Notes and queries: How can I allay my fear of death? Why did my email sit in cyberspace for five years? What's the point of skirting boards?

• “There is now a disproportionate amount of meretricious material aimed at appealing to public prurience, most of which revolves around the philandering of celebrities.”

  The Guardian: Editors tangle with the zip code

• “It may have made a tolerable movie in 1968 but, seen on stage, it looks hollow and meretricious.”

  The Guardian: The Lion in Winter - review

• “It is impossible to know whether Mr. Goodman and Ms. Huthins are now engaged in a meretricious relationship or whether they have assumed a more typical father-daughter relationship.”

  The Huffington Post: Christopher Brauchli: The Mistress and the Daughter

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