shabby
Part of speech: adj
verb
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: biology
medicine
natural-sciences
pathology
sciences
veterinary
zoology
Etymology: 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”)
Base: shab
Affixes: -y
Inflected forms:
form: shabbier
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: shabbiest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: shabbies
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: shabbying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: shabbied
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: shabbied
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Of clothing, a place, etc.: unkempt and worn or otherwise in poor condition due to age or neglect; scruffy.
pos: adj
examples: They lived in a tiny apartment, with some old, shabby furniture.
[A]s there was a stream of people pouring into a shabby house not far from the entrance, he waited until they had made their way in, […]
[C]ommonplace books are generally new, or at least in fine bindings. And here was a shabby little old book, such as, if it had been commonplace, would not have been likely to be the companion of a young lady at the bottom of a quarry— […]
[They] lived […] in one of the shabbiest streets in the debatable land between Pimlico and Chelsea—by courtesy, South Belgravia.
Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.
[T]hings got shabbier and got shabbier summer after summer. The mat was fading; the wall-paper was flapping. You couldn't tell any more that those were roses on it. Still, if every door in a house is left perpetually open, and no lockmaker in the whole of Scotland can mend a bolt, things must spoil.
Another place where, from the aesthetic point of view, a long tunnel would have been a real blessing, is East London as viewed from the carriage window on the old Great Eastern line. Despite a vast change from crowded slums to tracts of wasteland, due to its grim wartime experience, this approach still provides a shabby and unworthy introduction to the great capital.
gloss: Of a person: wearing ragged or very worn, and often dirty, clothing.
pos: adj
examples: The fellow arrived looking rather shabby after journeying so far.
The ſame gentleman, vvhenever he vvanted credit for a ſuit of cloaths, alvvays made the propoſal in a laced coat; for he found by experience, that, if he appeared ſhabby on theſe occaſions, his taylor had taken an oath againſt truſting; […]
She told her name, and vvas ſhevvn, by a little ſhabby foot-boy, into a parlour.
He was an affectionate brother, always glad to do a good turn to his sisters—who lived with a shabby old half-pay father, […]
gloss: Of a person, their behaviour, etc.: despicable, mean; also, not generous; stingy, tight-fisted.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: shabby treatment
"A thousand dollars are money, my father used to say when he drove fat oxen to market," replied John Wilde, in a mocking tone; "but it will not leave my hands for that shabby price; and, for my own part, it may ornament the foot of my daughter's doll."
It was voted a shabby excuse.
I, being more of a native, and familiar with their customs, knew that this shabby present was an insult to us.
What shabby things a man will do when he's eaten up with jealousy! But what a comfort those shabby things are to him! […] I'm disgusted with myself for having stooped to such a contemptible act.
gloss: Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: His painting is not too shabby.
[M]y Lord Duke's entertainments were both ſeldom and ſhabby […]
So unlooked-for a paradox required to be defended by the strongest arguments: who, then, would expect such shabby, not arguments, but hints of arguments, as the author presents us with?
gloss: Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.
pos: adj
tags: archaic
figuratively
gloss: Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.
pos: adj
tags: UK
dialectal
figuratively
informal
gloss: Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.
pos: adj
tags: UK
dialectal
figuratively
gloss: To make (something) shabby (adjective sense 1); to shabbify.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To become shabby; to shabbify.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: You'll be one of those tough, square, solid middle-aged men, like a shabbying brown bear, your golden crew-cut greying judiciously at the temples.
Derived words: shabbify
shabbily
shabbiness
shabby chic
shabby-genteel
shabbyish
unshabby
Translations:
lang: Finnish
word: hääppöinen
lang: Māori
word: pūtaitai
lang: Spanish
word: chimbo
lang: Spanish
word: deterior
lang: Spanish
word: cutre
lang: Spanish
word: flaite