shabby

[shab-ee]

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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.

Origin of shabby

1660–70; shab (Middle English; Old English sceabb scab) + -y¹; cognate with German schäbig

Related formsshab·bi·ly, adverbshab·bi·ness, nounun·shab·bi·ly, adverbun·shab·by, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for shabbily

badly, inadequately, insufficiently, crudely, reasonably, poorly, incompetently, meanly, defectively, inexpertly, inferiorly, shabbily, unsuccessfully, cheap, moderately, advantageously, discounted, shoddily

Examples from the Web for shabbily

Historical Examples of shabbily

And there was big, handsome, Eddie Arledge, whose father had treated him shabbily.
The Spenders
Harry Leon Wilson
You have asked the most shabbily dressed person in Elberthal to be your companion.
The First Violin
Jessie Fothergill
He was shabbily dressed, and she did not even know he was the son of a dentist.
Where Angels Fear to Tread
E. M. Forster
To treat him shabbily in any way denotes no real appreciation of his presence.
The Etiquette of To-day
Edith B. Ordway
Von Wedel, though dressed so shabbily, was the chief spokesman.
The Minister of Evil
William Le Queux

British Dictionary definitions for shabbily

shabby

adjective -bier or -biest

threadbare or dilapidated in appearance

wearing worn and dirty clothes; seedy

mean, despicable, or unworthyshabby treatment

dirty or squalid

Derived Formsshabbily, adverbshabbiness, noun

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

Word Origin and History for shabbily

shabby

adj.

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.