cardboard

Etymology

card + board

noun

1. A wood-based material resembling heavy paper, used in the manufacture of boxes, cartons and signs.

adj

1. Made of or resembling cardboard; (figurative) flat or flavorless.
   The worst of the thing, however, is that the enormity, such as it is, happens to be of a very cardboard and tinsel character. 1868, Arthur William A'Beckett, “Painted Ships and Painted Oceans”, in The Tomahawk, page 114
   The thing really looked quite cardboard. 1973, Journal of Black Poetry, number 17, page 27
   While Lensky’s character is quite cardboard, Onegin’s manipulations and lack of ability to call off the duel because he fears society’s jibes, Lensky’s youth and naivety, and Tatiana’s reaction to the duel lend the event its gravity. 2008, Katya Hokanson, Writing at Russia's Border, page 122
   MUMMER 3 pulls out an inflated cushion with a very cardboard crown on it. Twentieth-Century Scottish Drama, page 501