Cheugy, say it with me. Chew-gee. Cheugy. Apparently this is a new word that people are adopting, as sparked by one person on TikTok who says she made it up with some friends a few years back. You might not know what cheugy is off the bat, but believe me – you know exactly what it is when you see it in the wild.
So what exactly is “cheugy”? TikToker @webkinzwhore143 says it’s essentially the opposite of trendy – things that people do, post, say, own, or wear that’s not necessarily uncool, but just a bit outdated. And sorry, this absolutely includes millennials. We are all not immune from being cheugy.
@webkinzwhore143 Expand 👏 your 👏 vocabulary 👏 to 👏 include 👏 made 👏 up 👏 words 👏#greenscreen #cheugy #cheug
Hal says that “cheugy” is the word her and her friends have used for a while to describe things like “girlboss energy”, or the Live, Laugh, Love-energy homewares, or saying something is “so millennial”.
“Ok TikTok, I have a new word for you that my friends and I use, that you are clearly in need of,” she said.
“The word my friends is ‘cheugy’, it’s the opposite of trendy. It’s used when someone follows these out-of-date trends, or something falls into that category”
Hal then goes on to give a quick list of examples of things that are, most definitely, cheugy.
Graphic tees and hats: cheugy. Herbal Essences shampoo: cheugy. John Green novels, Off-White belts, gender reveals, low-top Converse, “crusty white dogs” (read: Maltese terriers) and Instagram captions like “I’m feeling 22” and “life’s a peach”: sorry mate, that’s all cheugy as hell.
A person can be a “cheug”, if they’re susceptible of perpetuating things that are no longer on trend. Say you still exfoliate layers of skin off with St. Ives Apricot Scrub every week, that’s some real cheug behaviour, my friend. My Family stickers on the back of your car? Mate, you’re hooning around in a Cheugmobile.
For supplementary reading and a good reference guide on what’s considered cheugy, the Instagram @cheuglife has an extensive and routinely-updated list of what to avoid, lest you fall into the cheug category.
Notably, it lists things like posting Rupi Kaur poems on Instagram, taking your lunch to work in a Lululemon bag, and square-shaped, matte manicures. Sorry to anyone still doing this in 2021.
The account also pointed out some “renowned cheugs”, including Britney Spears, Khloé Kardashian, Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift, Liam Payne, Kevin Jonas, Jennifer Lopez, Paris Hilton, Jojo Siwa, Katy Perry, Jonathan Van Ness, and Jason Derulo. Ruthless.
This doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad people, it’s more just they keep pushing trends that are well past their expiry date.
So there you go, pencil that new term into your mental rolodex of vocab because I reckon it’s got legs. Because quoting the “stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen” Mean Girls line in 2021 is, quite frankly, some real cheugy shit.
