crummy

[kruhm-ee]

See more synonyms for crummy on Thesaurus.com

adjective, crum·mi·er, crum·mi·est.

Also crumby. Slang.
1. dirty and run-down; shabby; seedy: a crummy fleabag of a hotel.
2. of little or no value; cheap; worthless: crummy furniture that falls apart after a month of use.
3. wretchedly inadequate; miserable; lousy: They pay crummy salaries.

noun, plural crum·mies.

Railroads Slang. a caboose.

Origin of crummy

1855–60; perhaps obsolete crum crooked (see crummie) + -y¹; sense “caboose” of unclear derivation and perhaps a distinct word

Related formscrum·mi·ly, adverbcrum·mi·ness, noun

crummy

[kruhm-ee, kroo m-ee]

noun, plural crum·mies. Chiefly Scot.

crummie.

crummie

or crum·my

[kruhm-ee, kroo m-ee]

noun Chiefly Scot.

a cow with crooked horns.

Origin of crummie

1715–25; obsolete crum crooked (Old English crumb; cognate with German krumm) + -ie

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for crummy

second-rate, miserable, rotten, shabby, cheap, contemptible, crappy, inferior, pathetic, poor, useless, worthless, grotty, third-rate

Examples from the Web for crummy

Contemporary Examples of crummy

And Steubenville was a prime example of our crummy attitude when it comes to bringing attackers to account.
Jada, Steubenville, And How America Is Failing Our Teen Girls
Charlotte Lytton
July 11, 2014
CAP gets its impressive number with a crummy trick: omitting the increased costs of legalization.
Immigration Amnesty: The Path to Poverty
David Frum
March 22, 2013
This process is exhausting for the poor phones, and more so for those phones with crummy transistors.
The Best Gadgets at CES’s Eureka Park: Mind-Reading Software and More
Winston Ross
January 9, 2013
The translation might as well be: he was a crummy governor; why would he be a different president?
Obama’s New Attack Ads Hit Mitt Romney’s Statehouse Record
Daniel Stone
June 20, 2012
The neighborhood gains a new and improved store in place of Mr. Gonzalez's crummy bodega.
Capital Gains: Answering Krugman and Bernstein
David Frum
January 23, 2012

Historical Examples of crummy

"I get it, all right, you crummy little chiseler," growled Astro.
Sabotage in Space
Carey Rockwell
Gimme another glass of milk and another of these crummy sandwiches.
Sabotage in Space
Carey Rockwell
And Crummy—thats my outside man—kin handle the front and make the spiel, and take in what money comes in.
Local Color
Irvin S. Cobb
You know you could do all right acting, but you don't dare giving up this crummy job.
The Old Die Rich
Horace Leonard Gold
You mean sitting in the sun on a crummy lakeside, watching the birds and bees?
On the Trail of the Space Pirates
Carey Rockwell

British Dictionary definitions for crummy

crummy

adjective -mier or -miest slang

of little value; inferior; contemptible
unwell or depressedto feel crummy

Word Origin for crummy

C19: variant spelling of crumby

crummy

noun plural -mies

Canadian a lorry that carries loggers to work from their camp

Word Origin for crummy

probably originally meaning: makeshift camp, from crummy 1

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

Word Origin and History for crummy

adj.

1560s, "easily crumbled;" 1570s, "like bread," from crumb + -y (2). The second sense probably accounts for 18c. (and later in dialects) use, of a woman, "attractively plump, full-figured, buxom." Slang meaning "shoddy, filthy, inferior, poorly made" in use by 1859, probably is from the first sense, but influenced by crumb in its slang sense of "louse."