virtue-signally

English

Etymology

From virtue signal +‎ -y.

Adjective

virtue-signally (comparative more virtue-signally, superlative most virtue-signally)

(informal, rare) Characterized by virtue signalling.
- 2017 September, Ray McMillin, “Erotic City”, in Ray McMillin, editor, Exotic Magazine, volume 25, number 3 (291 overall), Portland, Ore.: XMAG LLC, →OCLC, page 28, column 3:
  І know you’re not reading this column, Ted [Wheeler], because we don’t advertise for indie rock festivals or vegan grocery stores in our magazine (I mean, we will if asked, but I don’t think Whole Foods wants to be placed next to Top 5 Ways To Buy Sex With Bitcoin). So, it is a tad virtue-signally for me to say this, but for real: fuck you, Ted, and fuck the smart car you rode in on.
- 2021 October 14, Lucy Mangan, “Friday, 8 December”, in Are We Having Fun Yet?, London: Souvenir Press, →ISBN:
  Next year, I firmly resolve, I am going to be brave and send a mass text message on 1 December that says, I am saving myself and you the bother of cards this year and have made a donation to charity instead. Maybe you think this is selfish, maybe you think it is virtue-signally. I don’t know, I’m too tired. If you care, by all means strike my name from the record. I already feel so wildly free. Top o’ the season to ye!
- 2022 September 1, Geoff Shaw, “Despicable”, in Unmasked, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN:
  In Chapter 7 DESPISER, we documented Dan’s [i.e., Daniel Andrews’s] comments regarding tennis great Margaret Court, two years older than his mum, in which media commenter Rohan Dean said: “In the petty, petulance stakes, nothing, of course, could match the spoiled, mean-spirited, arrogant, virtue-signally narcissism of the Premier of Victoria parading in front of his sycophantic press groupies.”
- 2024 August 28, David Staples, “Seething anger suggests change is coming”, in Edmonton Journal, Edmonton, Alta., →ISSN, →OCLC, page A4, column 1:
  “It’s so ideological,” [Doug] Main said of council. “It’s trying to be pure and virtue-signally and making sure that [Justin] Trudeau and [Jagmeet] Singh are happy with what they’re doing. It’s just nuts.”