shabby

Meaning

1. Of clothing, a place, etc.: unkempt and worn or otherwise in poor condition due to age or neglect; scruffy.
2. Of a person: wearing ragged or very worn, and often dirty, clothing.
3. Of a person, their behaviour, etc.: despicable, mean; also, not generous; stingy, tight-fisted.
4. Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.
5. Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.
6. Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.
7. Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.

shabby

seedy

ragged

dilapidated

mean

worn-out

threadbare

poor

shoddy

tattered

slovenly

tatty

frayed

worn

vulgar

wretched

cheap

mangy

ramshackle

tumbledown

ratty

scruffy

base

humble

vile

dreary

miserable

dowdy

broken

damaged

destroyed

rickety

ruined

run-down

squalid

tacky

despicable

worn out

ignoble

greedy

dirty

pitiable

sloppy

pitiful

decayed

sleazy

old

moth-eaten

beat-up

dingy

scurvy

untidy

battered

low

hangdog

sordid

unclean

comfortless

lonely

wrinkled-up

dull

ungraceful

beggarly

inferior

cheab

crummy

contemptible

poorly

deteriorated

slummy

decrepit

wornout

base Latin

cast-off

dinky

dowdyish

down-at-heel

napless

overworn

poky

scrubby

time-worn

emaciated

soulless

worthless

dated

exiguous

jejune

meager

meagre

penurious

scanty

bitchy

caddish

coarse

common

lewd

low-minded

lowbred

lowdown

ornery

raffish

scurrilous

paltry

petty

spoiled

unfair

unsporting

bad

beastly

cantankerous

cattish

catty

despiteful

evil-minded

hurtful

malign

meanspirited

nasty

naughty

unkind

unkindly

unsympathetic

vicious

wicked

scarred

shaggy

beaten-up

bedraggled

tumble-down

crestfallen

deplorable

execrable

infelicitous

lousy

piteous

punk

ropey

rueful

sorry

stinky

trashy

woebegone

woeful

slipshod

dissipated

unsavory

decadent

neglected

ravaged

scraggly

unkempt

crumbled

pathetic

unworthy

ugly

unattractive

Frequency

Hyphenated as

shab‧by

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈʃæbi/

The adjective is derived from shab (“(obsolete except UK, dialectal) scaly skin disease; skin disease of sheep; crust forming over wound, scab”) + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives). The verb is derived from the adjective. cognates * Dutch schabbig (“poor, needy, shabby”) * Middle High German schebic (modern German schäbig (“shabby”)) * Middle Low German schabbich (“miserable”) (modern Low German schabbig, schäbbig) * Scots shabby (“in poor health, ill”) * Swedish sjabbig (“shabby, mangy, scruffy”), skabbig (“scabby”)