Dictionary

trophy girlfriend en · NOUN

Etymology

By analogy with trophy wife.

Meanings

1. A girlfriend, usually young and attractive, regarded as a status symbol for her partner, usually older and affluent.
   • The previous night had been bad enough, being paraded as a possible gold-digger or at best a trophy girlfriend chosen for her looks. Olivia had looked up that article in the sleepless pre-dawn hours and knew now what she had already suspected. All Adam cared about were a woman’s looks. 2014, Nina Milne, chapter 5, in How to Bag a Billionaire, Mills & Boon, page 64:
   • “We worked in the same firm and he said it would look bad if it got out about us. Anyway, being a trophy girlfriend was a job in itself, I can tell you,” Cindy said with feeling. “All those manicures and pedicures and waxes and shopping. He said that me looking good made him look good. Hah! We’ll see how good he looks when his wife gets around to him, I wonder will she threaten to cut him?" 2017, Joan Brady, chapter 6, in The Cinderella Reflex, Poolbeg Press, page 87:
   • Abbey slapped the sheet down on Nikolai’s desk. ‘I can’t keep up with this and you and work as well. There aren’t enough hours in the day! You are a very unreasonable man. I’m not a trophy girlfriend! And I flatly refuse to be made to feel like a kept woman. I’ve got better things to do with my time than spend the day being groomed like a pet poodle before I can be seen out with you in public!’ 2009, Lynne Graham, chapter 8, in The Ruthless Magnate's Virgin Mistress, Harlequin, page 125:
   • In her own way, she was as much a mass of insecurities as Cecily had been, and for the same reasons. Valued by her mother for her looks and what they earned. The trophy girlfriend, desired by men for her glamour. But until Dimitrios, never loved for herself; for the woman inside the body, the brain behind the face. 2008, Catherine Spencer, chapter 6, in The Giannakis Bride, Harlequin, page 89:
   • Damn, those eyes of his are striking. Why did I not notice those shiny hazel irises before? Maybe because I was going from trophy girlfriend to trophy girlfriend, ignoring the nagging feeling that I wasn’t getting what I really wanted and having no idea what that meant. 2017, Daryl Banner, chapter 4, in Football Sundae, Frozenfyre Publishing, page 46:

Forms

Coordinates

trophy husband · trophy partner · trophy boyfriend · trophy wife

Relateds

social handbag · armpiece · arm candy

Translations (1)

fr petite amie trophée (young attractive girlfriend serving as a status symbol her partner)