schlock

English

Etymology

From Yiddish שלאַק (shlak), related to German Schlag (“blow, strike, hit”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ʃlɒk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ʃlɑk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒk

Noun

schlock (countable and uncountable, plural schlocks)

1. (colloquial, US) Any commodity that is shoddy or inferior; now, usually, writing or audiovisual content that is shoddy or inferior.

   Alternative form: shlock

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:low-quality thing

   • 1978, Don DeLillo, Running Dog, New York: Knopf, page 148:

     Before pop art, there was such a thing as bad taste. Now there’s kitsch, schlock, camp and porn.

   • 1985 September 22, John Crowley, “St. Paul Meets Nero”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 26 July 2018:

     “The Kingdom of the Wicked” is not Mr. Burgess at the top of his bent. It is not schlock. It is too individual, too original for that; […] .

   • 2024 June 18, Spencer Klavan, “A Matter of Taste”, in The American Mind‎^[2], archived from the original on 27 September 2026:

     And just because leftoids make tripe from their position of strength is no reason for trads to make schlock from their position of weakness.

Derived terms

• schlockbuster
• schlocker
• schlockfest
• schlock house, schlock-house
• schlockmeister
• schlockumentary
• schlockware
• schlocky

Related terms

• schlockiness

Translations

commodity that is shoddy or inferior

• French: camelote (fr) f
• German: Mist (de) m, Müll (de) m, Ramsch (de) m, , Schas (de) m, Schund (de) m
• Hungarian: vacak (hu), ócskaság (hu), (slang or vulgar) szarság (hu), szar (hu)
• Polish: tandeta (pl) f
• Spanish: baratija (es) f

Further reading

• “schlock n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present.