What is Tchotchke?
1.
A small piece of worthless crap, a decorative knick knack with little or no purpose.
Side note: Chotchkie can be pretty, sentimental, or even occasionally useful though it usually breaks easily if useful. If you are having trouble identifying Tchotchke just look around your house or someone else's and whatever you see that a burgler wouldn't steal is probably Tchotchke.
Fake fruit, a ceramic frog containing candy, pretty much anything purchased at a dollar store, costume jewelry, etc. Of Yiddish etymology and referenced by Phoebie on the TV show friends.
Meg loved her cow figurine collection, but Dave thought it was useless Tchotchke.
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2.
Tchotchke is from Yiddish tshatshke, trinket, ultimately of Slavic origin. It is also spelled tsatske.
I'm going nuts with my mother's accumulation of tchotchkes - it's bad enough she never parted with one she got as a gift - but why did she have to buy more?
--Quoted in "Artifacts of Life," Newsday, December 9, 1996
3.
A cheap trinket.
The flea market is full of tchotchkes.
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4.
Piece of crap that people at trade shows fight over, mostly pens and coffee mugs.
The last trade show I went to had the same old tchotchkes on every table.
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5.
a 24 ounce can of beer.
Lets go to jill's house and pick up a couple tchotchkes on the way.
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