Adjective

(en adjective)

Of ostentation.

Intended to attract notice.

Of tawdry display; kitsch.

Adjective

(en adjective)

(obsolete) Of, or relating to prostitutes or prostitution.

Tastelessly gaudy; superficially attractive but having in reality no value or substance; falsely alluring.

* , chapter=10

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.}}

* 2006 , (Clive James), North Face of Soho , Picador 2007, p. 164:

When I lifted my eyes from the page, there was none of the meretricious argument London always offers that the sole real purpose in life is to hustle for a buck.