When someone criticizes you for being an idiot or not knowledgable either because you don't read books or don't keep up with news and current events. The person then goes out to a store and buys an item that if seen by the other would increase his respect of him. There are two results of this. The criticized person would then take the bought item and then never look at it or use it or they could return/sell it after a couple of days.
Jared: Mike you're a fucking idiot you don't know anything!!
Mike: Screw you i'm smart
Mike walks into B&N and buys Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code
Jared sees Mike
Jared: Whoaaaa you're gonna read that book??
Mike: Yeah man i've read all of his books
Jared to himself: Jesus Christ Mike is soooo smart!!
Mike to himself: HAHAHA im soooo knowledge shopping im never gonna read a book longer than 10 pages lol
Mike returns book
Mike: Screw you i'm smart
Mike walks into B&N and buys Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code
Jared sees Mike
Jared: Whoaaaa you're gonna read that book??
Mike: Yeah man i've read all of his books
Jared to himself: Jesus Christ Mike is soooo smart!!
Mike to himself: HAHAHA im soooo knowledge shopping im never gonna read a book longer than 10 pages lol
Mike returns book
by akararules July 1, 2010
Person who uses others knowledge as there own for commercial purposes, without paying person or persons for knowledge accrued
John offered an interview to a candidate through a recruitment agency So that he could find out how to design a square, because he'd never designed a square before, and didn't want to get sacked by his boss for a lack of skills and knowledge he couldn't be bothered to update. So John knowledge shopped the skills from an undergraduate pretending he had a job on offer when he didn't. This practice is called knowledge shopping.
by Samhall June 15, 2015