sleazy
[slee-zee, sley-zee]
- contemptibly low, mean, or disreputable: sleazy politics.
- squalid; sordid; filthy; dilapidated: a sleazy hotel.
- thin or poor in texture, as a fabric; cheap; flimsy: a sleazy dress; a sleazy excuse.
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Origin of sleazy
1635–45; (def 3) of obscure origin (probably unrelated to Silesia other than by folk etymology); sense of defs 1, 2 (first attested 1941) perhaps represent a distinct word
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
seedytrashysordidtackybasebroken-downcheapcommondilapidatedflimsylimplowmeanpaltrypoorrun-downshabbyshoddysqualidunsubstantialExamples from the Web for sleazy
Contemporary Examples
Or as Joey, the sleazy, besieged used car salesman in Cadillac Man.
And that is this sleazy rabbit hole in its most perfect summation.
How can she wax poetically about soiling herself at parties and not get branded as sleazy trash, a la Ke$ha?
How Jennifer Lawrence Took Over Hollywood. (It’s Not Just Because of Her Charm.)Kevin Fallon
December 20, 2013
When the ship docks, the “property” is scooped up by a sleazy slave merchant (Paul Giamatti), and sold at auction.
‘12 Years a Slave,’ Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender, Is MesmerizingMarlow Stern
August 31, 2013
The right-wing press will traffic in all kinds of sleazy rumors the instant she catches cold.
Historical Examples
If too large, on the other hand, the work is apt to be sleazy.
This pretense, this sleazy imitation of your old room is wrong.
Moment of TruthBasil Eugene Wells
Joe watched his narrow, bent shoulders under the sleazy shirt.
StubbleGeorge Looms
“Oh yes, dating younger people is so sleazy,” Lester said with a chuckle.
MakersCory Doctorow
He takes a kind of look-over at Hod, no collar nor nothing, and that sleazy coat of his'n.
The Broken GateEmerson Hough
sleazy
- sordid; disreputablea sleazy nightclub
- thin or flimsy, as cloth
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Word Origin
C17: origin uncertain
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for sleazy
adj.
1640s, "downy, fuzzy," later "flimsy, unsubstantial" (1660s), of unknown origin; one theory is that it is a corruption of Silesia, the German region, where thin linen or cotton fabric was made for export. Silesia in reference to cloth is attested in English from 1670s; and sleazy as an abbreviated form is attested from 1670), but OED is against this. Sense of "sordid" is from 1941. Related: Sleazily; sleaziness.
A day is a more magnificent cloth than any muslin, the mechanism that makes it is infinitely cunninger, and you shall not conceal the sleazy, fraudulent, rotten hours you have slipped into the piece, nor fear that any honest thread, or straighter steel, or more inflexible shaft, will not testify in the web. [Emerson, "The Conduct of Life," 1860]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper