Meanings
- UKattributivederogatoryinformalUsed to denote that something is low-quality or an inferior imitation.
[…] no rational human being should ever trust a single utterance issued by a pound-shop Trumpian administration.
2021 December 8, Owen Jones, “In Britain’s pound-shop Trumpian administration, rules are for the rest of us”, in The Guardian1 more example
Colum Eastwood, the MP for Foyle and leader of the SDLP, the nationalist party whose founding member, John Hume, won a Nobel prize for his championing of the peace process in Northern Ireland, called Braverman a “pound-shop Enoch Powell”.
2023 November 9, Daniel Boffey, quoting Colum Eastwood, “Braverman clarifies Northern Ireland comments amid angry criticism”, in The Guardian, →ISSNSynonyms: BTEC, dollar-store, poor man's, Poundland, Tesco Value, Wish.com
Synonyms & antonyms
nounUsed to denote that something is low-quality or an inferior imitation.
Origin
Attributive form of pound shop, due to the perception of the goods sold in pound shops as being cheap, low-quality versions of more expensive products found elsewhere.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
pound-shop. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pound-shop
“pound-shop.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pound-shop. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pound-shop,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pound-shop.
Source: pound-shop on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.