VCR 7
Helena Ge
Fill in the blank
Though at first the picture seemed like valuable evidence, after close examination, Sherlock Holmes concluded that it was ______________.
Meretricious
adjective
1. Attention-getting in a vulgar way; tawdry or tacky.
2. Insincere; based on pretense or deception.
Roots
mereo, merere, merui, meritum (L) "to earn"
Related words
Synonyms:
definition 1:
gaudy, flashy, showy
definition 2:
misleading, phony, sham
Antonyms:
definition 1:
undecorated, unembellished, plain
defintion 2:
genuine, real, authentic
Answers for VCR Exercises
7A
10. C
7B
2. B
7D
6. meretricious
Practice
Choose the sentence in which the bolded word is used incorrectly.
a. The company's policy states that any employee who dresses or behaves in a meretricious way will be fired.
b. Sally was strongly opposed to the idea of her mother decorating her house because of her meretricious style.
c. All of her hard work proved to be worthwhile when the audience gave her meretricious performance a standing ovation.
d. Many people buy meretricious books because of their ostentatious covers, but they rarely actually finish reading them.