tabloid
/ˈtablɔɪd
/noun
1A newspaper having pages half the size of those of the average broadsheet, typically popular in style and dominated by sensational stories: [as modifier]: the tabloid press...
- She has even forgiven boyfriends who have sold stories about her to the tabloids.
- No matter how nice they seem, you have to be sure that the story won't end up in the tabloids.
- The broadsheets and music press picked up on them first, with the tabloids following.
1.1 [as modifier] chiefly North American Lurid and sensational: a tabloid TV show...
- The first obstacle to the rising star of my career in tabloid television was that we were lost.
- Chattering about tabloid trivia or television celebrity shows, he can barely conceal his lack of interest.
- In short, the market is softening, but is in no way in a crisis, slump or any other such tabloid noun you care to use.
Origin
Late 19th century: from tablet + -oid. Originally the proprietary name of a medicine sold in tablets, the term came to denote any small medicinal tablet; the current sense reflects the notion of ‘concentrated, easily assimilable’.