1600-1700Latinmeretricius, from meretrix ‘prostitute’, from merere; ➔ MERIT1
Examples
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
a meretricious argument
EXAMPLES FROM THE CORPUS
A meretricious populism and pretentious sectarianism have between them squeezed out everything else.
A more simplistic or more meretricious film would have played those two worlds against each other.
He surfed big conditions with disdainful ease, a slightly meretricious casualness.
It's also curious how most of these groups have written at least one song about the meretricious lure of the capital.
Products range from the truly estimable and inspired to the merely pretty and, sometimes, meretricious.
something that is meretricious seems attractive but has no real value or is not based on the truth: meretricious research—meretriciousness noun [uncountable]