shop-soiled

UK/ˈʃɒpsɔɪld/US/ˈʃɑpˌsɔɪld/

adjective

Of a product in a retail store: damaged from being on display and handled by customers, etc.

Meanings

adjectiveshop-soiled (comparative more shop-soiled, superlative most shop-soiled)

comparative more shop-soiled · superlative most shop-soiled

  1. Synonym of shopworn.
    1. 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 Autobiography
      2 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 […], →OCLC

      The 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
    2. figurativelyNot fresh or new.

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

shop-soiled. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shop-soiled

MLA

“shop-soiled.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shop-soiled. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

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.