slob
Americannoun
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slobs
plural
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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:
I used to be a bit of a slob, my friends and family will attest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
I’ll chuck on slob clothes — a track suit and some Birkenstocks — and go off to Blue Bottle and get a coffee.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2023
She’s not a slob or loser; she’s a writer.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 14, 2023
Roger Ebert called "Stripes," "an anarchic slob movie, a celebration of all that is irreverent, reckless, foolhardy, undisciplined, and occasionally scatological."
From Salon ● Feb. 16, 2022
I might be a slob but I kept the yard looking tidy because Dad allowed me to drive our big garden tractor with a mower attachment on the back.
From "Dead End in Norvelt" by Jack Gantos
“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
If Season 1 was great, Season 2 is even better, thanks to the expansion of the main characters’ back stories — which in turn throws the good-versus-evil, perfect folks-versus-regular slobs plot into even sharper relief.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2020
If it was the snobs against the slobs, I knew which side I was on.
From New York Times ● Aug. 5, 2019
Mindy Kaling: ‘In my writers’ rooms, there are no slobs’
From The Guardian ● May 31, 2019
The only sounds were inside their heads — the moaning and wailing of the ghosts of all the poor slobs who had ever blundered onto Finsterwald’s property.
From "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
