shabby
impaired by wear, use, etc.; worn: shabby clothes.
showing conspicuous signs of wear or neglect: The rooms on the upper floors of the mansion had a rather shabby appearance, as if they had not been much in use of late.
wearing worn clothes or having a slovenly or unkempt appearance: a shabby person.
run-down, seedy, or dilapidated: a shabby hotel.
meanly ungenerous or unfair; contemptible, as persons, actions, etc.: shabby behavior.
inferior; not up to par in quality, performance, etc.: a shabby rendition of the sonata.
Origin of shabby
1Other words from shabby
- shab·bi·ly, adverb
- shab·bi·ness, noun
- un·shab·bi·ly, adverb
- un·shab·by, adjective
Words Nearby shabby
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use shabby in a sentence
It was written in 1940 by Woody Guthrie, allegedly in a shabby hotel room just outside of Times Square—not on the 6, but close enough.
Inauguration Musical Performances Are Tricky. But Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and Garth Brooks Did Exactly What We Needed Them to Do | Stephanie Zacharek | January 20, 2021 | TimeA friend sees Etta in a bookstore, in her shabby daily costume — a “wrinkled old evening gown” and sneakers.
Adrienne Kennedy’s new play, ‘Etta and Ella on the Upper West Side,’ is utterly unique | Peter Marks | January 14, 2021 | Washington PostMore and more often, I settle into a shabby, cat-clawed wing chair with the day’s newspapers and periodically snort “Harrumph!”
How did all these books get into my house? There’s a method to what seems like madness. | Michael Dirda | January 6, 2021 | Washington PostEver since I encountered the stunning Tepotztli tools, I’ve been side-eying my shabby cocktail set, quietly suppressing the urge to throw my old tools in the trash and order my dream set.
Neither is too shabby, considering how porous some other, more experienced clubs have been.
The Suns And Mavs Shouldn’t Have Surprised Us … But We Didn’t See T.J. Warren Coming | Chris Herring (chris.herring@fivethirtyeight.com) | August 5, 2020 | FiveThirtyEight
We met on the third floor of a shabby building in Asadabad in an impossibly spare room that we dragged cushions into.
Heart of Darkness: Into Afghanistan’s Taliban Valley | Matt Trevithick, Daniel Seckman | November 15, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTGraterford is a forbidding, shabby, woebegone facility built in 1929.
Here’s a Reform Even the Koch Brothers and George Soros Can Agree On | Tina Brown | November 10, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIt was such a lovely, shabby, many deco building town and completely unexploited.
Are all these setups, coincidences, misunderstandings, a shabby mass tabloid conspiracy, people on the make?
Not too shabby for a creature less than a year old who had never set a tentacle on the pitch.
The Amazing Tale of Paul the Psychic Octopus: Germany’s World Cup Soothsayer | Emily Shire | July 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe English have too much pride to be tricky or shabby, even in the essentially corrupting relation of buyer and seller.
Glances at Europe | Horace GreeleyThe farmer stooped down, and raised the shabby bonnet from the face of the woman to examine her more carefully.
The World Before Them | Susanna MoodieHe turned into an alley, down which, nautically speaking, he rolled into a shabby little court.
The Garret and the Garden | R.M. BallantyneShe still wore the shabby lace and the artificial bunch of violets on the side of her head.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories | Kate ChopinI am sure there is nothing lower, or more mean and shabby, than getting places and praise a fellow does not deserve.
The Daisy Chain | Charlotte Yonge
British Dictionary definitions for shabby
/ (ˈʃæbɪ) /
threadbare or dilapidated in appearance
wearing worn and dirty clothes; seedy
mean, despicable, or unworthy: shabby treatment
dirty or squalid
Origin of shabby
1Derived forms of shabby
- shabbily, adverb
- shabbiness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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