Adjacent Words

Shabby definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SHAB'BY, a.
1. Ragged; torn or worn to rags; as a shabby coat; shabby clothes.
2. Clothed with ragged garments.
The dean was so shabby- Swift.
3. Mean; paltry; despicable; as a shabby fellow; shabby treatment. [For the idea expressed by shabby, there is not a better word in the language.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: showing signs of wear and tear; "a ratty old overcoat"; "shabby furniture"; "an old house with dirty windows and tatty curtains" [syn: moth-eaten, ratty, shabby, tatty]
2: mean and unworthy and despicable; "shabby treatment"

Merriam Webster's

adjective (shabbier; -est) Etymology: obsolete English shab a low fellow Date: 1669 1. clothed with worn or seedy garments <a shabby hobo> 2. a. threadbare and faded from wear <a shabby sofa> b. ill-kept ; dilapidated <a shabby neighborhood> 3. a. mean, despicable, contemptible <must feel shabby…because of his compromises — Nat Hentoff> b. ungenerous, unfair <laments the shabby way in which this country often treated a poet — Paul Engle> c. inferior in quality <shabby reasoning> • shabbily adverb • shabbiness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. (shabbier, shabbiest) 1 in bad repair or condition; faded and worn, dingy, dilapidated. 2 dressed in old or worn clothes. 3 of poor quality. 4 contemptible, dishonourable (a shabby trick). Derivatives: shabbily adv. shabbiness n. shabbyish adj. Etymology: shab scab f. OE sceabb f. ON, rel. to SCAB

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Shabby Shab"by, a. [Compar. Shabbier; superl. Shabbiest.] [See Shab, n., Scabby, and Scab.] 1. Torn or worn to rage; poor; mean; ragged. Wearing shabby coats and dirty shirts. --Macaulay. 2. Clothed with ragged, much worn, or soiled garments. ``The dean was so shabby.'' --Swift. 3. Mean; paltry; despicable; as, shabby treatment. ``Very shabby fellows.'' --Clarendon.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(shabbier, shabbiest) 1. Shabby things or places look old and in bad condition. His clothes were old and shabby... He walked past her into a tiny, shabby room. ADJ 2. A person who is shabby is wearing old, worn clothes. ...a shabby, tall man with dark eyes. ADJ 3. If you describe someone's behaviour as shabby, you think they behave in an unfair or unacceptable way. It was hard to say why the man deserved such shabby treatment... I knew it was shabby of me, but I couldn't help feeling slightly disappointed. ADJ [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Ragged, worn, faded, threadbare, worn out, poor, mean. 2. Mean, base, low, despicable, contemptible, beggarly, paltry, unhandsome, ungentlemanly.

Moby Thesaurus

Mickey Mouse, NG, abandoned, abject, abominable, arrant, atrocious, awful, bare, base, battered, beastly, beat-up, bedraggled, beggarly, beneath contempt, blameworthy, blowzy, broken-down, brutal, budget, careless, cheap, cheesy, chintzy, coarse, common, contemptible, contemptuous, crummy, debased, decaying, decrepit, deficient, degraded, demeaning, deplorable, depraved, desolate, despicable, deteriorated, deteriorating, detestable, dilapidated, dingy, dire, dirty, disagreeable, discreditable, disfigured, disgraceful, disgusting, dishonorable, disreputable, dog-eared, dowdy, down-at-heel, down-at-the-heels, drabbletailed, draggled, draggletailed, dreadful, easy, economic, economy, egregious, enormous, execrable, faded, fetid, filthy, flagrant, foul, fourth-class, frayed, frazzled, frowzy, frugal, frumpish, frumpy, full of holes, fulsome, gaudy, gimcracky, good-for-naught, good-for-nothing, grave, grievous, gross, grubby, grudging, grungy, hateful, heinous, holey, horrible, horrid, ignoble, ignominious, imperfect, impolite, in rags, in shreds, in tatters, inadequate, incompetent, inexpensive, infamous, inferior, informal, inglorious, insufficient, irregular, junk, junky, lamentable, little, loathsome, loose, lousy, low, low-class, low-down, low-grade, low-priced, low-quality, low-test, lowly, lumpen, maladroit, manageable, mangy, mean, mean-spirited, measly, mediocre, meretricious, messy, mingy, miserable, moderate, modest, monstrous, moth-eaten, mussy, nasty, nefarious, neglected, negligent, niggard, niggardly, no-account, no-good, noisome, nominal, not comparable, not in it, not worth having, not worth mentioning, not worthwhile, notorious, nugacious, nugatory, obnoxious, odious, offensive, opprobrious, out of it, outrageous, outworn, paltry, patchy, pathetic, penurious, peremptory, petty, pinchpenny, pitiable, pitiful, poky, poor, poverty-stricken, punk, ragged, raggedy, ramshackle, rank, ratty, reasonable, regrettable, reprehensible, reptilian, repulsive, rickety, rotten, rubbishy, rude, ruined, ruinous, run-down, sad, scabby, scandalous, schlock, scraggly, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, scuzzy, second-best, second-class, seedy, sensible, shady, shameful, shattered, shocking, shoddy, slack, slatternly, sleazy, slipshod, sloppy, slovenly, slumlike, slummy, sluttish, small, sordid, sorry, squalid, stingy, tacky, tattered, tatty, terrible, third-class, third-rate, threadbare, tinny, tired, token, too bad, torn, trashy, trivial, trumpery, tumbledown, two-for-a-cent, two-for-a-penny, twopenny, twopenny-halfpenny, unclean, uncouth, unexpensive, unfriendly, ungenerous, ungentlemanly, unhelpful, unkempt, unladylike, unmentionable, unneat, unpleasant, unrespectable, unsightly, unskillful, untidy, unworthy, valueless, vile, villainous, within means, woeful, worn, worn out, worn-out, worst, worth the money, worthless, wrecked, wretched