shabby
Americanadjective
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impaired by wear, use, etc.; worn.
shabby clothes.
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showing conspicuous signs of wear or neglect.
The rooms on the upper floors of the mansion had a rather shabby appearance, as if they had not been much in use of late.
-
wearing worn clothes or having a slovenly or unkempt appearance.
a shabby person.
-
run-down, seedy, or dilapidated.
a shabby hotel.
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meanly ungenerous or unfair; contemptible, as persons, actions, etc..
shabby behavior.
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inferior; not up to par in quality, performance, etc..
a shabby rendition of the sonata.
adjective
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threadbare or dilapidated in appearance
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wearing worn and dirty clothes; seedy
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mean, despicable, or unworthy
shabby treatment
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dirty or squalid
Other Word Forms
- shabbily adverb
- shabbiness noun
- unshabbily adverb
- unshabby adjective
Etymology
Origin of shabby
1660–70; shab ( Middle English; Old English sceabb scab ) + -y 1; cognate with German schäbig
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.
“One cannot just rush from one’s home looking shabby, rumpled, and unkempt,” Handsome would likely say to Duane.
From Literature
In a meticulously crafted stop-motion world of gritty dockside poverty, a starving waif discovers the neglected girl in a shabby home weeps not teardrops but pearls.
From Los Angeles Times
Believe me, it was hard to imagine anything fancy in their shabby cottage.
From Literature
The fish-out-of-water comedy show followed the wealthy Rose family as they abruptly lose their money and mansion, and are forced to move into a shabby motel in a deadbeat town they bought as a joke.
From BBC
Everything is old and a little shabby, and the air is as damp and salty in here as it is outside.
From Literature
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.
