tabloid

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small, compressed portion of a chemical, drug, food substance, etc.; a pill, a tablet.

   One of the compartments was found to contain some forty compressed tabloids, which on analysis proved to be potassium bromide.

2. 2
   noun

   A compact or compressed version of something; especially something having a popular or sensational nature.

   This boat Mayfay has been admirable as a tabloid cruiser and while Sure Mike is about her same size, Sure Mike is far more nicely modeled; she will not have Mayfay's 17-mile-an-hour homespun plainness.

3. 3
   adj

   In the form of a tabloid (noun senses 2 and 2.2): compressed or compact in size.

   Travellers, explorers and missionaries are enabled to carry the most effective medicines in the smallest possible space by using ‘Tabloid’ Medicine cases as supplied to [Henry Morton] Stanley and to all leading expeditions. ‘Tabloid’ medicines contain absolutely accurate doses of the purest drugs, require neither weighing nor measuring, and retain their activity after exposure to the most trying climates.

4. 4
   adj

   Resembling the style of journalism generally associated with a tabloid newspaper: appealing to unsophisticated people, sensational, etc.

   tabloid journalism

5. 5
   verb

   To express (something) in a compact or condensed manner, especially in the style of journalism generally associated with a tabloid newspaper (appealing to unsophisticated people, sensational, etc.).

   This "tabloiding" of the latest fashions, we thought an excellent idea. Surely it's not the sole mission of a dry goods ad. to give news of bargains? Would not reliable information as to coming fashions be of equal interest to the average woman?

6. 6
   verb

   To convert (a newspaper) into a tabloid (noun sense 2.2) format.

   The ‘tabloiding’ of local newspapers has resulted in a ‘dumbing down’ of the local press. The publication of shorter, brighter, ‘frothier’ stories and the increasing reliance on stories about entertainment, consumer items and ‘human interest’ stories, are the infallible hallmarks of the tabloid genre.

7. 7
   noun

   newspaper with half-size pages

8. 8
   noun

   sensationalist journalism

Etymology

The noun is derived from tabl(et) + -oid (suffix meaning ‘having the likeness of, resembling’), originally coined by the United Kingdom firm Burroughs, Wellcome & Company as a brand name for their medicines and other products such as tea in tablet form and registered as a trademark on 14 March 1884. Noun sense 2 (“compact or compressed version of something; especially something having a popular or sensational nature”) is influenced by noun sense 2.2 (“newspaper characterized as favouring stories of a popular or sensational nature over serious news”). The adjective and verb are derived from the…