Adjacent Words

Sordid definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SOR'DID, a. [L. sordidus, form sordes, filth.]
1. Filthy; foul; dirty; gross. There Charon stands a sordid god. [This literal sense is nearly obsolete.]
2. Vile; base; mean; as vulgar, sordid mortals.
3. Meanly avaricious; covetous; niggardly. He may be old and yet not sordid, who refuses gold.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: morally degraded; "a seedy district"; "the seamy side of life"; "sleazy characters hanging around casinos"; "sleazy storefronts with...dirt on the walls"- Seattle Weekly; "the sordid details of his orgies stank under his very nostrils"- James Joyce; "the squalid atmosphere of intrigue and betrayal" [syn: seamy, seedy, sleazy, sordid, squalid]
2: unethical or dishonest; "dirty police officers"; "a sordid political campaign" [syn: dirty, sordid]
3: foul and run-down and repulsive; "a flyblown bar on the edge of town"; "a squalid overcrowded apartment in the poorest part of town"; "squalid living conditions"; "sordid shantytowns" [syn: flyblown, squalid, sordid]
4: meanly avaricious and mercenary; "sordid avarice"; "sordid material interests"

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Latin sordidus, from sordes dirt — more at swart Date: 1606 1. marked by baseness or grossness ; vile <sordid motives> 2. a. dirty, filthy b. wretched, squalid 3. meanly avaricious ; covetous 4. of a dull or muddy color Synonyms: see mean • sordidly adverb • sordidness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 dirty or squalid. 2 ignoble, mean, or mercenary. 3 mean or niggardly. 4 dull-coloured. Derivatives: sordidly adv. sordidness n. Etymology: F sordide or L sordidus f. sordere be dirty

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sordid Sor"did, a. [L. sordidus, fr. sordere to be filthy or dirty; probably akin to E. swart: cf. F. sordide. See Swart, a.] 1. Filthy; foul; dirty. [Obs.] A sordid god; down from his hoary chin A length of beard descends, uncombed, unclean. --Dryden. 2. Vile; base; gross; mean; as, vulgar, sordid mortals. ``To scorn the sordid world.'' --Milton. 3. Meanly avaricious; covetous; niggardly. He may be old, And yet sordid, who refuses gold. --Sir J. Denham.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If you describe someone's behaviour as sordid, you mean that it is immoral or dishonest. I don't want to hear the sordid details of your relationship with Sandra... ADJ [disapproval] 2. If you describe a place as sordid, you mean that it is dirty, unpleasant, or depressing. ...the attic windows of their sordid little rooms. = seedy ADJ [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Mean, base, vile, low, degraded. 2. Ccvetous, avaricious, stingy, miserly, niggardly, close, illiberal, ungenerous, penurious, close-fisted.

Moby Thesaurus

a hog for, abased, abominable, acquisitive, all-devouring, arrant, atrocious, avaricious, avid, awful, base, beastly, beat-up, bedraggled, beneath contempt, black, blameworthy, blowsy, blowzy, bottomless, brutal, careless, chintzy, contemptible, corrupt, coveting, covetous, debased, defiled, degraded, deplorable, derogatory, despicable, deteriorated, detestable, devouring, dilapidated, dingy, dire, dirty, discreditable, disgusting, dishonorable, disreputable, dowdy, down-and-out, drabbletailed, draggled, draggletailed, dreadful, egregious, enormous, esurient, execrable, feculent, fetid, filthy, flagrant, foul, frowsy, frowzy, frumpish, frumpy, fulsome, gluttonous, gobbling, grabby, grasping, greedy, grievous, gross, grubby, grudging, hateful, heinous, hoggish, horrible, horrid, ignoble, ignominious, impoverished, impure, in rags, infamous, informal, inglorious, insanitary, insatiable, insatiate, lamentable, limitless, loathsome, loose, lousy, low, low-down, lumpen, maggoty, mean, mercenary, messy, mingy, miserable, miserly, money-hungry, money-mad, monstrous, mucky, mussy, nasty, nefarious, negligent, niggard, niggardly, noisome, notorious, obnoxious, odious, offensive, omnivorous, outrageous, overgreedy, parsimonious, penurious, piggish, pinchpenny, pitiable, pitiful, poky, polluted, poor, poverty-stricken, putrid, quenchless, ragged, raggedy, ramshackle, rank, rapacious, ravening, ravenous, regrettable, reprehensible, repulsive, rotten, ruinous, sad, scandalous, schlock, scraggly, scurvy, seamy, seedy, selfish, servile, shabby, shady, shameful, shocking, shoddy, slack, slakeless, slattern, slatternly, sleazy, slimy, slipshod, sloppy, slovenly, slumlike, slummy, sluttish, sodden, squalid, stingy, swinish, tacky, tattered, terrible, too bad, tumbledown, unappeasable, unappeased, unclean, uncleanly, unkempt, unneat, unpraiseworthy, unquenchable, unrespectable, unsanitary, unsated, unsatisfied, unsavory, unsightly, unslakeable, unslaked, untidy, venal, vile, villainous, voracious, woeful, worst, worthless, wretched