shabby

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English

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WOTD – 22 July 2024

Etymology

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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).[1]

The verb is derived from the adjective.[2]

cognates

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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shabby (comparative shabbier, superlative shabbiest)

  2. Of clothing, a place, etc.: unkempt and worn or otherwise in poor condition due to age or neglect.
    Synonyms: decrepit, moth-eaten, run-down, timeworn, tired; see also Thesaurus:deteriorated, Thesaurus:ramshackle
    They lived in a tiny apartment, with some old, shabby furniture.
    • 1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, “Nicholas seeks to employ himself in a New Capacity, and being unsuccessful, accepts an engagement as Tutor in a Private Family”, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 143:
      [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, […]
    • 1867, George MacDonald, “The Bishop’s Basin”, in Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood […], volume I, London: Hurst and Blackett, publishers, successors to Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 154:
      [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— […]
    • 1882, [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], “‘And Pale from the Past We Draw nigh Thee’”, in Mount Royal […], volume II, London: John and Robert Maxwell […], →OCLC, page 179:
      [They] lived […] in one of the shabbiest streets in the debatable land between Pimlico and Chelsea—by courtesy, South Belgravia.
    • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
      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.
    • 1927 May, Virginia Woolf, chapter 5, in To the Lighthouse (Uniform Edition of the Works of Virginia Woolf), new edition, London: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, […], published 1930, →OCLC, part I (The Window), page 47:
      [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.
    • 1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 703:
      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.
  3. Of a person: wearing ragged or very worn, and often dirty, clothing.
    The fellow arrived looking rather shabby after journeying so far.
  4. (figurative)
    1. Of a person, their behaviour, etc.: despicable, mean; also, not generous; stingy, tight-fisted.
      (not generous): Synonyms: ungenerous; see also Thesaurus:stingy
      shabby treatment
    2. (often in the negative) Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.
      His painting is not too shabby.
      1. (medicine, archaic) Of the pulse: thready, weak.
      2. (UK, dialectal or informal) Of weather: wet and dreary.
      3. (UK, dialectal, veterinary medicine) Chiefly of sheep: affected by shab or scab (“a skin disease”); scabby.

Derived terms

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Translations

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of a person, their behaviour, etc.: not generous — see stingy,‎ tight-fisted
of the pulse: thready, weak — see weak
of weather: wet and dreary — see dreary
chiefly of sheep: affected by shab or scab — see scabby
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

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shabby (third-person singular simple present shabbies, present participle shabbying, simple past and past participle shabbied)

  1. (transitive) To make (something) shabby (adjective sense 1); to shabbify.
  2. (intransitive) To become shabby; to shabbify.

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “shabby, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2023; “shabby, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “shabby, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.

Further reading

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