tabloids

Noun

tabloid (plural tabloids)

1. (archaic) A small, compressed portion of a chemical, drug, food substance, etc.; a pill, a tablet.
   • One of the compartments was found to contain some forty compressed tabloids, which on analysis proved to be potassium bromide.1890 November 15, “Medicines Supplied to the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition”, in Thomas H. Wakley, Thomas Wakley, Jun., editors, The Lancet, volume II, number 3507, London: [Thomas H. Wakley and Thomas...
2. (figuratively) In full tabloid cruiser: a small yacht used for cruising.
   • This boat Mayfay has been admirable as a tabloid cruiser and while Sure Mike is about her same size, Sure Mike is far more nicely modeled; she will not have Mayfay's 17-mile-an-hour homespun plainness.1930 September, E. Weston Farmer, “Sure Mike—a New Idea in Cruisers: The Design and Specifications for a Rough Water Hydroplane for Big Outboards which Carries a Shelter Cabin and which can Cruise in...
3. (figuratively) A newspaper having pages half the dimensions of a broadsheet, especially characterized as favouring stories of a popular or sensational nature over serious news.
   • […] Lyle Stuart, […] is known—notorious would be the proper word—for his publishing and writing in the fields of obscenity and extreme leftism: he puts out a sort of tabloid called "The Independent".1967 May 17, Edward Hunter, “Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 [Exhibit 2: Anatomy of a Film Analysis of ‘Three Faces of Cuba’]”, in Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 90th Congress...

   Synonyms:

   rag, red top, scandal sheet, tab

4. (Canada, US, figuratively) A paper size 11 × 17 inches (279 × 432 millimetres) in dimensions.

See all 8 meanings of tabloid