sloven
Americannoun
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a person who is habitually negligent of neatness or cleanliness in dress, appearance, etc.
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a person who works, acts, speaks, etc., in a negligent, slipshod manner.
noun
Etymology
Origin of sloven
1400–50; late Middle English sloveyn, perhaps < Middle Dutch slof careless ( Dutch slof careless, sloven to toil) + -inne feminine noun suffix
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.
The agency’s report on her said she “had a very poor personal appearance, her clothes were sloven and dirty, and her hair was uncombed and matty, and she had a very offensive body odor.”
From Washington Times
Leaving traces of her sloven unhousebroken self all over the county.
From Literature
The names of the teams - "kings, royals, knights" - reveal a lack of imagination and a sloven admiration for colonial and aristocratic titles.
From BBC
He was such a sloven, as if he had trusted to his genius as a cloak for everything that could disgust you in his person....
From Project Gutenberg
Two-thirds of the fire alarm was destroyed, and all the watering-carts, slovens, hose, &c., belonging to the corporation, were burned.
From Project Gutenberg
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.
