guilty pleasure

Definitions

Something that brings pleasure but is considered taboo, unadvisable or lowbrow.

idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“For the renowned sushi chef, it was a guilty pleasure to eat⟳ fish⟳ sticks drowned in tartar sauce.”

“Rock bands record⟳ classic albums, while pop stars create⟳ "guilty pleasure" singles. It's supposed to be self-evident: U2's entire oeuvre deserves respectful consideration, while a spookily seductive song by an R&B singer named Tweet can only be, in the smug words of a recent VH1 special, "awesomely bad."”

“We all have⟳ guilty pleasures, don't we? During the summer of 1993, my guilty pleasure was watching Saved by the Bell reruns.”

“In postmodernism, mass culture is not so much a guilty pleasure as it is the white noise of our time.”

CEFR level