Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Shabby, dirty, and vulgar; tawdry.
  • adjective Dishonest or corrupt; disreputable.
  • adjective Made of low-quality materials; cheap or shoddy.
  • adjective Thin and loosely woven; flimsy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of thin or flimsy substance; composed of poor or light material: said of a textile fabric.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Wanting firmness of texture or substance; thin; flimsy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Marked by low quality; inferior; inadequate.
  • adjective Dishonorable; base; vulgar; raunchy; sordid.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of cloth; thin and loosely woven
  • adjective morally degraded
  • adjective of very poor quality; flimsy

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • "Beside her, on a little thin clothespole, hung a mantle and a coat of sleazy material. The mantle had no fur linings, but very poor and shabby ones of heavy, shaggy black lamb."

    --The Romance of the Rose, Guilluame de Lorris & Jean de Meun

    November 14, 2010