slob
Americannoun
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a slovenly or boorish person.
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Irish English. mud or ooze, especially a stretch of mud along a shore.
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Chiefly Canadian. sludge.
noun
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informal a slovenly, unattractive, and lazy person
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mire
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of slob
1770–80; < Irish slab ( a ) mud, mire
Explanation
A slob is someone who's messy or lazy. Tuck your shirt in and wash the dishes, you slob! You may think of your sister as a slob if she never cleans up after herself, leaving crumbs all over the house and clothes all over her room. It's a derogatory term, though, so think twice before you call her a slob out loud. An earlier meaning of the word was "muddy land," from the Irish slab, or "mud." The 1860s expression "slob of a man" led to the current definition of slob.
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:
She’s not a slob or loser; she’s a writer.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 14, 2023
More recently, cartoonist Scott Adams satirized the attitude in a 1990s Dilbert comic strip that depicted office slob Wally taking an “in-cubicle sabbatical.”
From Washington Times ● Sep. 12, 2022
I'm not a slob, but I am a maximalist, and my whole life, I have felt deep shame about it.
From Salon ● May 25, 2022
It’s also a near-perfect way to tell someone you love that it’s time to stop living like a slob and do the dishes already.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2022
He always looked good when he was finished fixing himself up, but he was a secret slob anyway, if you knew him the way I did.
From "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger
“We kept talking about these tropes from ‘80s movies of slobs versus snobs,” and how it mirrored the mom-and-pop shop versus big business dynamic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2026
“When I think of 20-year-old men, I think of open ramen containers, like, underwear, beds unmade and just like slobs basically. I have three younger brothers and I think of slobs,” she said.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 8, 2021
Every one of its 884 pages is an absolute joy to read, and no book is more deeply comforting to neat freaks—or inspirational to slobs.
From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2019
If it was the snobs against the slobs, I knew which side I was on.
From New York Times ● Aug. 5, 2019
The ones who don't want to pay at the dump, or got dangerous chemicals, or think we're such slobs down here we won't mind another load of junk.
From "Seedfolks" by Paul Fleischman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
