Schlock

//ʃlɒk// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any commodity that is shoddy or inferior; now, usually, writing or audiovisual content that is shoddy or inferior. US, colloquial, countable, uncountable

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

  2. 2
    merchandise that is shoddy or inferior wordnet

Example

More examples

"I don't know many people who like to watch schlock films."

Etymology

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

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.