"trophy wife" meaning in English

See trophy wife in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: trophy wives [plural]
Etymology: Popularized by Julie Connelly in a 1989 Fortune magazine cover story, by analogy with a real estate trophy building. Head templates: {{en-noun|trophy wives}} trophy wife (plural trophy wives)
  1. (derogatory) A wife, usually young and attractive, regarded as a status symbol for the husband, usually older and affluent. Tags: derogatory Categories (topical): Female people, Marriage Related terms: arm candy Translations (young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband): 花瓶老婆 (huāpíng lǎopó) (Chinese Mandarin), 花瓶妻 (huāpíngqī) (Chinese Mandarin), trofækone [common-gender] (Danish), edustusvaimo (Finnish), potiche [feminine] (French), Vorzeigefrau [feminine] (German), Trophäenfrau [derogatory, feminine, often] (German), אישה לקישוט (Hebrew), אישה ייצוגית (Hebrew), אישה לראווה (Hebrew)

Inflected forms

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  "etymology_text": "Popularized by Julie Connelly in a 1989 Fortune magazine cover story, by analogy with a real estate trophy building.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "trophy wives",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
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  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
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        {
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        {
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
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        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Female people",
          "orig": "en:Female people",
          "parents": [
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            "People",
            "Gender",
            "Human",
            "Biology",
            "Psychology",
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          "kind": "topical",
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          "name": "Marriage",
          "orig": "en:Marriage",
          "parents": [
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            "Family",
            "Society",
            "People",
            "All topics",
            "Human",
            "Fundamental"
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          "source": "w"
        }
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1991, Douglas Coupland, “It Can't Last”, in Generation X, New York: St. Martin's Press, →OCLC:",
          "text": "[…] while Mrs. Scott-Baxter, his fourth (and trophy) wife, blonde and young and bored, glowered at the Baxter spawn like a mother mink in a mink farm, just waiting for a jet to strafe the facility, affording her an excuse to feign terror and eat her young.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993 March, Sally Ogle Davis, “The good, the bad and the disasters”, in Ladies' Home Journal, page 57:",
          "text": "But don't expect this one to break up. Arnold [Schwarzenegger] got his trophy wife—a real-life Kennedy, his entreé to the top social echelons in the country—and he's not about to let her go.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Julia Llewellyn, The Model Wife, Penguin UK, →ISBN:",
          "text": "‘She's with her nanny.’ ‘Oh yeah, I forgot. You're a proper trophy wife now. Staff and everything. Well…’ She produced a bottle of cava from a plastic bag. ‘With no child to keep up appearances for, let's get ourselves in the mood.’",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, George G. Nyman, Love Lost in Time Relativity, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 12:",
          "text": "She was David's fourth wife. Twenty-four years his junior, they both knew why they were together. David was filthy rich, and Belinda was a trophy wife. In fact, this was her third time around in this career: Being a trophy wife.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A wife, usually young and attractive, regarded as a status symbol for the husband, usually older and affluent."
      ],
      "id": "en-trophy_wife-en-noun-WW37~yrw",
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "young",
          "young"
        ],
        [
          "attractive",
          "attractive"
        ],
        [
          "status symbol",
          "status symbol"
        ],
        [
          "husband",
          "husband"
        ],
        [
          "older",
          "older"
        ],
        [
          "affluent",
          "affluent"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(derogatory) A wife, usually young and attractive, regarded as a status symbol for the husband, usually older and affluent."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "arm candy"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "huāpíng lǎopó",
          "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
          "word": "花瓶老婆"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "huāpíngqī",
          "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
          "word": "花瓶妻"
        },
        {
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "trofækone"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
          "word": "edustusvaimo"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "potiche"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Vorzeigefrau"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
          "tags": [
            "derogatory",
            "feminine",
            "often"
          ],
          "word": "Trophäenfrau"
        },
        {
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
          "word": "אישה לקישוט"
        },
        {
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
          "word": "אישה ייצוגית"
        },
        {
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
          "word": "אישה לראווה"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "trophy wife"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Popularized by Julie Connelly in a 1989 Fortune magazine cover story, by analogy with a real estate trophy building.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "trophy wives",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "arm candy"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
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        "English countable nouns",
        "English derogatory terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1991, Douglas Coupland, “It Can't Last”, in Generation X, New York: St. Martin's Press, →OCLC:",
          "text": "[…] while Mrs. Scott-Baxter, his fourth (and trophy) wife, blonde and young and bored, glowered at the Baxter spawn like a mother mink in a mink farm, just waiting for a jet to strafe the facility, affording her an excuse to feign terror and eat her young.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993 March, Sally Ogle Davis, “The good, the bad and the disasters”, in Ladies' Home Journal, page 57:",
          "text": "But don't expect this one to break up. Arnold [Schwarzenegger] got his trophy wife—a real-life Kennedy, his entreé to the top social echelons in the country—and he's not about to let her go.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Julia Llewellyn, The Model Wife, Penguin UK, →ISBN:",
          "text": "‘She's with her nanny.’ ‘Oh yeah, I forgot. You're a proper trophy wife now. Staff and everything. Well…’ She produced a bottle of cava from a plastic bag. ‘With no child to keep up appearances for, let's get ourselves in the mood.’",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, George G. Nyman, Love Lost in Time Relativity, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 12:",
          "text": "She was David's fourth wife. Twenty-four years his junior, they both knew why they were together. David was filthy rich, and Belinda was a trophy wife. In fact, this was her third time around in this career: Being a trophy wife.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A wife, usually young and attractive, regarded as a status symbol for the husband, usually older and affluent."
      ],
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        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "young",
          "young"
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        [
          "attractive",
          "attractive"
        ],
        [
          "status symbol",
          "status symbol"
        ],
        [
          "husband",
          "husband"
        ],
        [
          "older",
          "older"
        ],
        [
          "affluent",
          "affluent"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(derogatory) A wife, usually young and attractive, regarded as a status symbol for the husband, usually older and affluent."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "huāpíng lǎopó",
      "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
      "word": "花瓶老婆"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "huāpíngqī",
      "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
      "word": "花瓶妻"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "trofækone"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
      "word": "edustusvaimo"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "potiche"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Vorzeigefrau"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "feminine",
        "often"
      ],
      "word": "Trophäenfrau"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
      "word": "אישה לקישוט"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
      "word": "אישה ייצוגית"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "sense": "young attractive wife who's a status symbol for her husband",
      "word": "אישה לראווה"
    }
  ],
  "word": "trophy wife"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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