Meanings
comparative more shop-soiled · superlative most shop-soiled
- Synonym of shopworn.
- Of a product in a retail store: damaged from being on display and handled by customers, etc.
The only book of poetry in the whole lot was a shop-soiled copy of The Poems of George Herbert in the World Classics series.
1977, Paul Hasluck, Mucking About: An Autobiography2 more examples
All Tuesday week afternoon she was hunting to match that chenille but at last she found what she wanted at Clery's summer sales, the very it, slightly shopsoiled but you would never notice
1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLCThe most usual examples of this are the sales of second-hand or shop-soiled goods where the vendor clearly states their condition and sells them "as seen".
2004, Richard Christou, Drafting Commercial Agreements
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
From shop (noun) + soiled (adjective).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
shop-soiled. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shop-soiled
“shop-soiled.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shop-soiled. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shop-soiled,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shop-soiled.
Source: shop-soiled on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.