shabby
Americanadjective
-
shabbier,
comparative
-
shabbiest
superlative
-
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.
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run-down, seedy, or dilapidated.
a shabby hotel.
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meanly ungenerous or unfair; contemptible, as persons, actions, etc..
shabby behavior.
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inferior; not up to par in quality, performance, etc..
a shabby rendition of the sonata.
adjective
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threadbare or dilapidated in appearance
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wearing worn and dirty clothes; seedy
-
mean, despicable, or unworthy
shabby treatment
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dirty or squalid
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of shabby
1660–70; shab ( Middle English; Old English sceabb scab ) + -y 1; cognate with German schäbig
Explanation
The adjective shabby describes something that is threadbare or worn out. Your last apartment was clean, but the furniture and carpets were so shabby that you were embarrassed to invite your friends over. The adjective shabby also describes a manner of acting that is mean or contemptible. If you spent your whole childhood treating your younger brother in a shabby way, you can't expect him to be your friend when you're older. In modern slang, if you say something is "not too shabby," you mean that it was good. You might compliment your brother by telling him his soda can sculpture isn't too shabby.
Vocabulary lists containing shabby
Maus I: My Father Bleeds History
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Number the Stars
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Then again, this column has spent a decade charting Washington’s shabby descent into lawfare.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Words such as "shabby" and "secret schemes" speak for themselves.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
The whole affair was tawdry, shabby, and cheap—designed to pander to downwardly mobile young men who felt angry at the world.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
Super Micro Computer spiked 69% in May—not quite as good as its rival, Dell, but not too shabby.
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
If I was a ghost, I wouldn’t haunt these shabby little houses.
From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
“From A to Z, from animal services to the zoo, the city is shabbier and more dysfunctional than it was three years ago,” said Cole, now a member of the Pasadena City Council.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2026
The meeting house grows progressively more dilapidated, and the costumes get shabbier, indicating that things aren’t going well for the Puritans.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026
However, the photo she said she took in person showed a much shabbier house, featuring uneven grass and cluttered with yard equipment where the bench was supposed to be.
From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2025
The play is being staged in the city’s South End, described in “Common Ground” as “a shabbier, scruffier part of the city,” but now polished and pricey.
From New York Times ● Jun. 21, 2022
The houses up here were shabbier than the brick houses lower down in the valley.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
But it is a copout of the shabbiest sort to exploit this anxiety as a way of averting our gaze from the undiminished threat of North Korea.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 17, 2017
We’re the ones who highlight the shabbiest research.
From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2016
The pattern veered to the extreme Saturday afternoon, when the Nationals followed their self-described biggest win of the season with one of their shabbiest losses.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 29, 2013
Not the shabbiest of lists, we're sure you'll agree.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 23, 2013
He noticed that the houses had started to gain pillars out front, that even the shabbiest, thinnest house now had its white pillars, proclaiming it, in someone’s eyes, a mansion.
From "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
