Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Lacking liveliness, animation, or interest; dull.
  • adjective Lacking taste, zest, or flavor; flat.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • That has lost its life and spirit; insipid; dead; flat.
  • Dull; spiritless; destitute of animation; insipid.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having lost its life and spirit; dead; spiritless; insipid; flat; dull; unanimated.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Lifeless, dull or banal.
  • adjective Tasteless, bland, or insipid.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective lacking taste or flavor or tang
  • adjective lacking significance or liveliness or spirit or zest

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin vapidus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin vapidus ("flat or vapid").

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Examples

  • John Mariani, a longtime wine and food writer, predicts a rise in vapid wine blogs.

    Imperfect storage, blogging, new critics, Johnny Apple – sipped and spit | Dr Vino's wine blog 2010

  • Sure, Ann Coulter has proven that being shrill and vapid is no serious barrier to success, but Coulter is at least sporadically witty and entertaining — she can turn a phrase, whether or not she uses it to say much of anything.

    Peer Produced Harassment 2006

  • Locale: Staging and dressing together constitute locale and their absence will render it "vague" or "vapid" -- though a writer might, of course, pare away the requisite details deliberately, in the same way they might pare away features distinguishing voice.

    Archive 2009-12-01 Hal Duncan 2009

  • Locale: Staging and dressing together constitute locale and their absence will render it "vague" or "vapid" -- though a writer might, of course, pare away the requisite details deliberately, in the same way they might pare away features distinguishing voice.

    Notes on Worldscape Hal Duncan 2009

  • I vaguely recall a vapid amicus brief or two urging that the Supreme Court grant cert in a case because some lawprofs cared about it.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » LawProfs for Sotomayor: 2009

  • She abandons her son for what can only be called a vapid frat boy.

    Who Cares Who Is John Galt? Roger Sutton 2007

  • Los Angeles has long been known as a vapid cultural wasteland.

    www.philadelphiaweekly.com Philadelphia Weekly 2010

  • Likened to bimbos, or called vapid, or whatever else?

    Renegade Evolution 2009

  • From the moment George Bush coined his vapid "compassionate conservatism" rhetoric during the 2000 campaign, principled conservatives knew they were in trouble.

    The Reality Check 2009

  • From the moment George Bush coined his vapid "compassionate conservatism" rhetoric during the 2000 campaign, principled conservatives knew they were in trouble.

    MND: Your Daily Dose of Counter-Theory 2009

Comments

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  • Has a very intense angry sound and shape. Great insult.

    Much like insipid.

    November 3, 2008

  • Seems flaccid as an insult.

    November 3, 2008

  • helpful word.

    November 28, 2008