shabby
[ shab-ee ]
/ ˈʃæb i /
adjective, shab·bi·er, shab·bi·est.
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.
run-down, seedy, or dilapidated: a shabby hotel.
meanly ungenerous or unfair; contemptible, as persons, actions, etc.: shabby behavior.
inferior; not up to par in quality, performance, etc.: a shabby rendition of the sonata.
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RELATED WORDS
badly, inadequately, insufficiently, crudely, reasonably, poorly, incompetently, meanly, defectively, inexpertly, inferiorly, unsuccessfully, cheap, moderately, advantageously, discounted, shoddily
Nearby words
- shabash,
- shabbas,
- shabbas goy,
- shabbat,
- shabbify,
- shabby-genteel,
- shabelle,
- shabu-shabu,
- shabuoth,
- shacharis
Origin of shabby
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for shabbily
shabby
/ (ˈʃæbɪ) /
adjective -bier or -biest
threadbare or dilapidated in appearance
wearing worn and dirty clothes; seedy
mean, despicable, or unworthyshabby treatment
dirty or squalid
Word Origin for shabby
C17: from Old English sceabb scab + -y 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
shabby
1660s, of persons, "poorly dressed," with -y (2) + shab "a low fellow" (1630s), literally "scab" (now only dialectal in the literal sense, in reference to a disease of sheep), from Old English sceabb (the native form of the Scandinavian word that yielded Modern English scab; also see sh-). Cf. Middle Dutch schabbich, German schäbig "shabby."
Of clothes, furniture, etc., "of mean appearance, no longer new or fresh" from 1680s; meaning "inferior in quality" is from 1805. Figurative sense "contemptibly mean" is from 1670s. Related: Shabbily; shabbiness. Shabby-genteel "run-down but trying to keep up appearances, retaining in present shabbiness traces of former gentility," first recorded 1754. Related: Shabaroon "disreputable person," c.1700.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper