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Showing results for scummy. Search instead for scummier.
Synonyms

scummy

American  
[skuhm-ee] / ˈskʌm i /

adjective

scummier, scummiest
  1. consisting of or having scum.

  2. Informal. despicable; contemptible.

    That was a scummy trick.


scummy British  
/ ˈskʌmɪ /

adjective

  1. of, resembling, consisting of, or covered with scum

  2. dirty, unpleasant, or nasty

"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

Etymology

Origin of scummy

First recorded in 1570–80; scum + -y 1


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:

Of course that would be scummy, and it sounds like it must be fraud.

From Slate ● Dec. 6, 2022

Listen, spin docs: Quit rebranding pols who’ve acted scummy!

From Washington Post ● Sep. 22, 2022

NVHAP, a risk for virtually all hospital patients, is often caused by bacteria from the mouth that gathers in the scummy biofilm on unbrushed teeth and is aspirated into the lungs.

From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2022

Typically, microbial inks rely on a scaffold of polymers to stiffen their scummy forms.

From New York Times ● Nov. 23, 2021

"They have a boggy stink, like frogs and trees and scummy water. Moss grows under their arms in place of hair, and they can live with nothing to eat but mud and breathe swamp water."

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin

It was a macho thing: 'My contact is scummier than your contact.'

From Reuters ● Jul. 16, 2011

Then, Gillen sets them to scheming against each other in the scummiest corners of the Star Wars universe.

From Slate ● Apr. 12, 2019

In San Francisco, “you could be the scummiest person, you could be a doctor. You can be whatever you want to be. This city gives you all the skills to do it.”

From The Guardian ● Oct. 9, 2017

Dish towels are some of the scummiest things in your kitchen.

From Time ● Jul. 14, 2017

Stocky paparazzi, wearing the same cargo-shorts-black-logo-tee uniform they wear on the scummiest corners of Hollywood Boulevard, lug their gear down the sidewalk in search of that perfect shot to sell to an Italian tabloid.

From The Verge ● May 15, 2015

Since then, as often as he has time, he goes to bathe in the scummiest parts, and then comes and tells me all about it with any amount of circumstantial evidence.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, April 15, 1914 by Sir Owen Seaman

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