seedy

Meaning

1. Literal senses:
2. Literal senses:
3. (colloquial) Literal senses:
4. (figuratively) Inferior in condition or quality.
5. (figuratively) Inferior in condition or quality.
6. (figuratively) Inferior in condition or quality.
7. (figuratively) Inferior in condition or quality.

Synonyms

shabby

squalid

indisposed

dilapidated

scruffy

poorly

sleazy

ragged

threadbare

ailing

feverish

worn-out

sickly

bedraggled

battered

ramshackle

sordid

rickety

lapsed

under the weather

seamy

decayed

unwell

peaked

void

decrepit

scrofulous

scrub

scrubby

shady

shaggy

shoddy

sick

🤢

abject

slatternly

sloppy

slovenly

sluttish

sorry

tatty

tumble-down

unclean

uncleanly

unfit

unkempt

unorganized

unsavory

untidily

venerable

weakly

Translations

schäbig

miteux

kılıksız

louche

hinfällig

baufällig

vieux

🧓

gebrechlich

zwielichtig

caduc

abgelebt

miserabel

douteux

schäbige

malsain

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈsiːdi/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: sedy

In summary

From Middle English sedy, equivalent to seed + -y.
The senses with negative connotation, first attested by 1725 in slang, originally especially “poor, out of money”, probably arose from the metaphor of a flower that has gone to seed, and is no longer considered beautiful. From there the word came to be used to describe unwell or past-their-prime people, and parallelly run-down places and by extension low-income or crime-affected urban areas. Compare the figurative expressions go to seed (by 1817), etc., originally in reference to plants, “cease flowering as seeds develop”.