sleaze

[sleez] /sliz/
noun, Slang.
1.
a contemptible or vulgar person.
2.
a shabby or slovenly person.
3.
a sleazy quality, character, or atmosphere; shoddiness; vulgarity.
4.
sleazy behavior, content, appearance, or the like.
Origin
1950-55; back formation from sleazy
Examples from the web for sleaze
  • The sleaze is in your mind, and in your conditioned cultural responses, not in the pictures.
  • Barber shoots it in a grunge style so flamboyant he seems to be aestheticizing sleaze.
  • Underneath the sleaze are sermons illustrating simple, school-primer virtues.
  • With it, the group can detect patterns of sleaze and curses and spotlight advertisers who buy on naughty shows.
  • Otherwise, you should realize that this guy is a sleaze.
  • Her strongest suit is her determination to put an end to sleaze.
  • And so it goes on, one report of public-sector sleaze after another.
  • Her story has unleashed an outpouring of public contempt for the sleaze that surrounds so many civil servants.
  • Elected on an anti-corruption ticket, he has kept up pressure on the country's endemic sleaze, but selectively.
  • And a worrying whiff of sleaze hangs over public life.
British Dictionary definitions for sleaze

sleaze

/sliːz/
noun (informal)
1.
sleaziness
2.
dishonest, disreputable, or immoral behaviour, especially of public officials or employees: political sleaze
Word Origin and History for sleaze
n.

"condition of squalor," by 1967, back-formation from sleazy. Meaning "person of low moral standards," and the adjectival use, are attested from 1976.

Slang definitions & phrases for sleaze

sleaze

modifier

: the sleaze factor

noun
  1. Anything shabby and disgusting; particularly revolting trash; crap, schlock, shit: a paragon of Dorothy Malone low-fashion sleaze (1976+)
  2. sleazebag (1976+)
verb
  1. To be sexually promiscuous and disreputable (1976+)
  2. To scrounge; mooch (1970s+ Students)

[a back formation from sleazy; sleaze, ''a sleazy quality or appearance,'' is found by 1954]