sloppy
[slop-ee]
- muddy, slushy, or very wet: The field was a sloppy mess after the rain.
- splashed or soiled with liquid.
- careless; loose: sloppy writing.
- untidy; slovenly: sloppy clothes; a sloppy eater.
- overly emotional; gushy: sloppy sentimentality.
- (of food or drink) prepared or served in an unappetizing way.
- (of clothes) loose-fitting; baggy: a big, sloppy sweater.
- (of the surface of a racetrack) wet from a recent or continuing heavy rain and containing puddles and mud still too thin and watery to be sticky.
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Origin of sloppy
Synonyms
See more synonyms for sloppy on Thesaurus.com2, 4. messy. 3. slipshod. 4. slatternly.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for sloppily
Contemporary Examples
From the title on, Cheney the author seems hopelessly, blindly, foolishly, sloppily in love with his subject.
Many are sloppily melodramatic and the show seems thrown at you unedited.
Historical Examples
The decks were dirty, and the sails, sloppily furled, were dirty likewise.
Keziah CoffinJoseph C. Lincoln
He was a tall but sloppily built fellow, and after a straight one on the point of his chin I back-twisted him over the iron bed.
The Secrets of a KuttiteEdward O. Mousley
In real life all might have happened just as it is set down, but real life is sloppily constructed.
Madison got a bottle and he and I got sloppily drunk, leaning on each other, singing innocently obscene songs of our youth.
Measure for a LonerJames Judson Harmon
Generally, Oswald's uniforms were clean but not neat; they were either unironed or sloppily ironed.
Warren Commission (8 of 26): Hearings Vol. VIII (of 15)The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy
sloppy
- (esp of ground conditions, etc) wet; slushy
- informal careless; untidy
- informal mawkishly sentimental
- (of food or drink) watery and unappetizing
- splashed with slops
- (of clothes) loose; baggy
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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 sloppily
sloppy
adj.
1727, "muddy," from slop (n.1) + -y (2). Meaning "loose, ill-fitting, slovenly" is first recorded 1825, influenced by slop (n.2). Related: Sloppily; sloppiness. Sloppy Joe was originally "loose-fitting sweater worn by girls" (1942); as a name for a kind of spiced hamburger, it is attested from 1961.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper