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white trash

white trash

15 9.9
An insulting word for poor white people, especially in the southern United States
  • noun
  • /waɪt træʃ/
  • Slur
translation icon : [término ofensivo para personas blancas de clase baja]
  • When he called me white trash, I felt both insulted and angry.
  • poor white trash

The other day a girl referred to me as white trash and, and that kind of made me mad.

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Examples

  • If you looked in the dictionary under "poor white trash".. a picture of Early and Adele would have been there.

  • We're the white trash of the gay world, a group that it's socially acceptable to not accept.

    Academic text (2005)
  • The other day a girl referred to me as white trash and, and that kind of made me mad.

  • We have a friend whose sister has always been a little on the white trash side.

    Blog text (26)
  • Some white trash stole a couple of our dogs last year.

  • You think we're trash, is that it? We're white trash, is that it?

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Also, we grew up dirt poor white trash like borrowing money to buy food.

  • Poor white trash, that was him, and that's me.

  • Levittown was (and maybe still is?) the white trash capital of the Northeast.

    Blog text (24)
  • The derogatory designations of "white trash" and "hillbilly" assigned to poor Appalachians complicate the privileges usually attached to whiteness.

    Academic text (2014)

Antonyms

258 4.7

A small group of the most powerful or rich people in a society

15 3.4

A social group with the most money and power

How Offensive

white trash
  • Slur
15 9.9
poor person
8 1.0
working-class
56 3.4

Surface Forms

white trash singular
white trashes plural

Morphology

white + trash

The compound meaning is directly compositional: 'white' refers to White people and 'trash' is a derogatory term for people viewed as worthless, so a learner who knows both words can infer it is an insulting label for White people. Although the phrase carries offensive and socio‑cultural connotations (and regional usage may vary), the basic derogatory sense is transparently derived from the constituents.

Etymology

White trash may come from comparing poor white people to trash, meaning garbage with no value. So, today it is a strong, offensive way to call poor or working-class White people 'worthless'.