ENGLISH
REFERENCE

garden variety

idiom
Meaning

Ordinary, common, or unexceptional.


Examples
SIMPLE

It was just a garden variety cold, nothing serious.

CONTEXTUAL

The thief wasn't a mastermind — just a garden variety criminal who left fingerprints everywhere.

COMPLEX

Beneath the museum's celebrated masterpieces hung a row of garden variety portraits, dutifully commissioned by merchants long forgotten.

Anchors to
Related idioms7entries
  1. 01

    common or garden variety

    An ordinary, standard kind.

  2. 02

    everything in the garden is rosy

    Things are going well; everything is fine.

  3. 03

    lady garden

    A woman's pubic hair, and the area around it.

  4. 04

    lead someone up the garden path

    To deceive, hoodwink, mislead, or seduce someone.

  5. 05

    make garden

    To plant or maintain a garden, especially a vegetable garden.

  6. 06

    rose garden

    A highly desirable situation.

  7. 07

    skunk at a garden party

    Within a group, someone who is unwelcome and actively avoided.

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