shabby

[shab-ee] /ˈʃæb i/

adjective, shabbier, shabbiest.

impaired by wear, use, etc.; worn:

shabby clothes.

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.

meanly ungenerous or unfair; contemptible, as persons, actions, etc.:

shabby behavior.

inferior; not up to par in quality, performance, etc.:

a shabby rendition of the sonata.

Origin

1660-70; shab (Middle English; Old English sceabb scab) + -y¹; cognate with German schäbig

Related forms

shabbily, adverb

shabbiness, noun

unshabbily, adverb

unshabby, adjective

Examples from the web for shabby

He still lives worse than they do, in a shabby rented house crammed with compatriots.
The memorials are still magnificent, but the park grounds are looking shabby.
The specs aren't too shabby either, although everything is based on last year's standards.
Choosing between conflicting committee meetings may be shabby consolation to the overcommitted, but it's a luxury all the same.
The shabby chic table opposite, for instance, is in my zip code range and seriously tempting.
In real life, wireless speakers tend to sound kind of shabby.
It grieves for lost influence, or fears the imminent loss of influence, and it shudders at an increasingly shabby present.
Their shabby corporate governance and their dominance of the economy were widely criticised.
May look a bit shabby in winter but revives rapidly in spring add to my plant list.
It's a really shabby way for the government to treat these guys who were drafted.

British Dictionary definitions for shabby

shabby

/ˈʃæbɪ/

adjective -bier, -biest

threadbare or dilapidated in appearance

wearing worn and dirty clothes; seedy

mean, despicable, or unworthy: shabby treatment

dirty or squalid

Derived Forms

shabbily, adverb
shabbiness, noun

Word Origin

C17: from Old English sceabbscab + -y1

Word Origin and History for shabby

adj.

1660s, of persons, "poorly dressed," with -y (2) + shab "a low fellow" (1630s), literally "scab" (now only dialectal in the literal sense, in reference to a disease of sheep), from Old English sceabb (the native form of the Scandinavian word that yielded Modern English scab; also see sh-). Cf. Middle Dutch schabbich, German schäbig "shabby."

Of clothes, furniture, etc., "of mean appearance, no longer new or fresh" from 1680s; meaning "inferior in quality" is from 1805. Figurative sense "contemptibly mean" is from 1670s. Related: Shabbily; shabbiness. Shabby-genteel "run-down but trying to keep up appearances, retaining in present shabbiness traces of former gentility," first recorded 1754. Related: Shabaroon "disreputable person," c.1700.