sloven
Americannoun
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a person who is habitually negligent of neatness or cleanliness in dress, appearance, etc.
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a person who works, acts, speaks, etc., in a negligent, slipshod manner.
noun
Etymology
Origin of sloven
1400–50; late Middle English sloveyn, perhaps < Middle Dutch slof careless ( Dutch slof careless, sloven to toil) + -inne feminine noun suffix
Explanation
A sloven is a disgusting, sloppy person. If you call your messy roommate a sloven, expect him to be offended. You can use the noun sloven when you need a good word for a terrible slob. It's not a very common word, but it replaces pig very nicely when you're talking about a truly sloppy, unpleasant person. Sloven was first used in the fifteenth century to mean "person with horrible manners." Its origins are uncertain, but it probably stems from either the Flemish sloef, "dirty," or slof, which is Dutch for "careless or negligent."
Vocabulary lists containing sloven
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
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The Shining
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Jazz
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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.
“I will be able to make products in Thailand,” Sloven said at the end of last summer.
From Reuters • Aug. 20, 2019
Regardless of what happened with the trade war, Sloven felt covered.
From Reuters • Aug. 20, 2019
Sloven is just one of thousands of entrepreneurs who have been forced by the trade war to upend their business operations in China in the biggest supply chain shift in a generation.
From Reuters • Aug. 20, 2019
“I’m going to start moving on a small scale because they’re not going to be able to just do it immediately,” Sloven said.
From Reuters • Aug. 20, 2019
Indeed, we had just as much objection to walking out with Fred Fop as we had with Jack Sloven; one was quite as unpleasantly conspicuous as the other.
From Parkhurst Boys And Other Stories of School Life by Reed, Talbot Baines
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.
