squalor
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of squalor
1615–25; < Latin squālor dirtiness, equivalent to squāl ( ēre ) to be dirty, encrusted + -or -or 1
Explanation
If something is extremely dirty, filthy, or just plain disgusting, it falls into the territory of the noun squalor. We’re not just talking about a messy room. We’re talking about a grimy dungeon filled with rats and roaches. Squalor comes from the Latin squalere, which means “to be filthy.” This word often refers to living conditions as in, “after the disaster, the people were living in squalor.” It can also describe a city or a building that is in general disrepair such as “ever since the budget cuts, people have moved away and the city has fallen into squalor.”
Vocabulary lists containing squalor
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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.
In 1953, “Esmé” was reprinted in Salinger’s “Nine Stories,” a collection whose U.K. edition was titled “For Esmé—With Love and Squalor: And Other Stories.”
From The New Yorker • Nov. 13, 2016
Although no other gigs are planned for a toilet, Squalor said he would like to play other unorthodox venues.
From BBC • Feb. 18, 2014
Jesse's relationships with this trio bring to mind two great stories about literature and learning, Lionel Trilling's Of This Time, of That Place and JD Salinger's For Esme – with Love and Squalor.
From The Guardian • Oct. 6, 2012
Sitcomish Squalor and Dysfunction The new play “Oliver Parker!” at the Cherry Lane Theater might qualify as offensive — certainly it strives mightily for that dubious laurel — if it were not so patently artificial.
From New York Times • May 20, 2010
Squalor, misery, ruin and vile stucco, with a sprinkling of half-desperate humanity,—those are the elements of the modern picture,—that is what the 'great development' of modern Rome brought forth and left behind it.
From Ave Roma Immortalis, Vol. 1 Studies from the Chronicles of Rome by Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
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.
