Word.ws English Dictionary

trumpery

Syllables: trump·ery/ˈtɹʌmpəɹi//ˈtɹʌmpəɹi/

trumpery noun: worthless finery; bric-a-brac or junk.

trumpery: worthless finery; bric-a-brac or junk
Image: Subhashish Panigrahi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

trumpery (countable and uncountable, plural trumperies)

  1. Worthless finery; bric-a-brac or junk.
    • I have ſold all my Tromperie: not a counterfeit Stone, not a Ribbon, Glaſſe, Pomander, Browch, Table-booke, Ballad, Knife, Tape, Gloue, Shooe-tye, Bracelet, Horne-Ring, to keepe my Pack from faſting: […]c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    • PROSPERO.^([To Ariel]) / This was well done, my bird. / Thy shape invisible retain thou still: / The trumpery in my house, go bring it hither / For stale to catch these thieves.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
  2. Nonsense.
    • Now upon the coming of Chriſt, very much, tho' not all, of this idolatrous Trumpery and Superſtition was driven out of the World: […]1698, Robert South, “The Lineal Descent of Jesus of Nazareth from David by his Blessed Mother the Virgin Mary. Proved in a Discourse on Rev. xxii. 16.”, in Twelve Sermons upon Several Subjects and...
  3. (obsolete) Deceit; fraud.
    • Agrippina after this, more mad and wilfull then ever, gave out threatning and thundring ſpeeches: yet not forbearing the Princes eares, but crying, that Britannicus was now growen to mans eſtate : a true and worthy plant to receive his fathers Empire, which a grafted ſon by adoption now poſſeſſed...1640, Richard Greenwey, The Annales of Cornelius Tacitus. The Description of Germanie, publ. by Richard Whitaker, 182.
    • In that case there is no need for me to write about the trumpery scandal by which I was the sufferer—the innocent sufferer, I positively assert.1859 November 26 – 1860 August 25, [William] Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1860, →OCLC

Adjective

trumpery (not comparable)

  1. Gaudy but worthless.
    • He earnestly exhorted them all to be earnest in their studies, and to think nothing beneath them. Let them not pass over any cases as unimportant; for they must remember that some of the greatest principles of the law had been enunciated out of the most apparently trumpery cases that had come...1872 February 3, A. R. Adams, “The Birmingham Law Students' Society”, in The Law Times: The Journal and Record of the Law and the Lawyers, volume LII, London: Published at the Office of the Law...
    • I also remember the old Royal Mews that stood on the site of the present trumpery National Gallery, with its too suggestive pepper-boxes; […]1887, Charles Mackay, Through the Long Day: Or, Memorials of a Literary Life, page 113

Noun (2) capitalized: Trumpery

Trumpery (uncountable)

  1. (derogatory, usually) The beliefs and practices of US president Donald Trump.
    • "Trump: The Art of the Deal" (fresh drumroll, please) is more forthcoming about the first wing of the Trump attack than it is about the second. The reason goes to the dark heart of Trumpery: the book is itself a craftily designed piece of public relations. That a businessman should thus use himself...1988 February 1, Louis Menand, “The Triumph of Trumpery”, in The New Republic, New York, N.Y.: Republic Publishing Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 07 Jun 2023
    • In American alone, after 18 months of trumpery, the editors of Merriam-Webster are still playing catch-up. If new terms aren't being hatched, like narcissocracy or pluto-populism, then recent inventions (infoganda, feardom, Spinnish) are fast gaining traction.2018 August 28, David Astle, “Wordplay: OK cracy-ness rules, OK?”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, NSW: Nine Entertainment, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 31 Aug 2018

trumpery meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Persian

trumpery in Tamil

மதிப்பிலி நிறை அணிகலன்

trumpery in Malayalam

knick-knacks, trinkets, baubles
പകിട്ടാർന്ന തുച്ഛവസ്തു, കാക്കപ്പൊന്ന്, തൃണം, നിസ്സാരമായത്, കൊള്ളരുതാത്ത സാധനങ്ങൾ, പൂച്ച്

trumpery in Kannada

ಬೆಡಗಿನ, ಬರಡಾದ, ಹುರುಳಿಲ್ಲದ, ಕೆಲಸಕ್ಕೆ ಬಾರದ, ಅಸಂಬದ್ಧ

trumpery in Persian

worthless finery; bric-a-brac or junk
زلم زیمبو zalam-zimbo

Forms of trumpery

pluraltrumperies

Origin of trumpery

From Middle English trompery, from Middle French tromperie (“deceit”).

From Trump + -ery, especially as a pun on trumpery.

Words formed from trumpery

Phrases with trumpery

Questions about trumpery

What does trumpery mean?
Trumpery means worthless finery; bric-a-brac or junk.
What is trumpery in Tamil?
Trumpery in Tamil is மதிப்பிலி நிறை அணிகலன். See Trumpery meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is trumpery?
Trumpery can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce trumpery?
Trumpery is pronounced /ˈtɹʌmpəɹi/ (UK).
What is the plural of trumpery?
The plural of trumpery is trumperies.

Words near trumpery in the dictionary

  1. Trumper
  2. trumperies
  3. trumperiness
  4. Trumperor
  5. Trumpers
  6. trumpery
  7. Trumpese
  8. Trumpesque
  9. trumpet
  10. trumpet animalcule
  11. trumpet animalcules

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trumpery (page history and authors); Trumpery (page history and authors); trumpery (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); trumpery (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); trumpery (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-trumpery.wav.

Cite this entry: “trumpery.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trumpery. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.