shabby
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]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
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ˈʃæbi/
Audio (General American): (file) - Rhymes: -æbi
- Hyphenation: shab‧by
Adjective
[edit]shabby (comparative shabbier, superlative shabbiest)
- Of clothing, a place, etc.: unkempt and worn or otherwise in poor condition due to age or neglect; scruffy.
- 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.
- Of a person: wearing ragged or very worn, and often dirty, clothing.
- The fellow arrived looking rather shabby after journeying so far.
- 1765, [Oliver] Goldsmith, “Essay V”, in Essays. […], London: […] W[illiam] Griffin […], →OCLC, page 37:
- 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; […]
- 1782, [Frances Burney], “A Man of Wealth”, in Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress. […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Payne and Son […], and T[homas] Cadell […], →OCLC, book II, page 156:
- She told her name, and vvas ſhevvn, by a little ſhabby foot-boy, into a parlour.
- 1882, [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], “And Pale from the Past We Draw Nigh to Thee”, in Mount Royal […], volume II, London: John and Robert Maxwell […], →OCLC, page 179:
- He was an affectionate brother, always glad to do a good turn to his sisters—who lived with a shabby old half-pay father, […]
- (figurative)
- Of a person, their behaviour, etc.: despicable, mean; also, not generous; stingy, tight-fisted.
- (not generous): Synonyms: ungenerous; see also Thesaurus:stingy
- shabby treatment
- 1856, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “Of the Loves of Mr. Perkins and Miss Gorgon, and of the Two Great Factions in the Town of Oldborough”, in “The Bedford-Street Conspiracy”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume III, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC, page 473:
- It was voted a shabby excuse.
- 1857, David Livingstone, chapter III, in Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 68:
- I, being more of a native, and familiar with their customs, knew that this shabby present was an insult to us.
- 1892 January 4 (first performance), W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, librettist; Alfred Cellier, [Ivan Caryll], composers, […] The Mountebanks, London: Chappell & Co., […], published 1892, →OCLC, Act I, page 11:
- 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.
- (often in the negative) Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.
- His painting is not too shabby.
- 1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, “The Campaign of 1707, 1708”, in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. […] , volume II, London: […] Smith, Elder, & Company, […], →OCLC, page 252:
- [M]y Lord Duke's entertainments were both ſeldom and ſhabby […]
- 1865, John Stuart Mill, “Of Some Minor Peculiarities of Doctrine in Sir William Hamilton’s View of Formal Logic”, in An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy, […], London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, →OCLC, page 448:
- 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?
- Of a person, their behaviour, etc.: despicable, mean; also, not generous; stingy, tight-fisted.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]of clothing, a place, etc.: unkempt and worn or otherwise in poor condition due to age or neglect — see also worn
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of a person: wearing ragged or very worn, and often dirty, clothing
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poor in quality; showing little effort or talent
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
[edit]shabby (third-person singular simple present shabbies, present participle shabbying, simple past and past participle shabbied)
- (transitive) To make (something) shabby (adjective sense 1); to shabbify.
- (intransitive) To become shabby; to shabbify.
- 1962, Doris Lessing, “The Golden Notebook”, in The Golden Notebook (Flamingo Modern Classics), London: Flamingo, HarperCollinsPublishers, published 1993, →ISBN, page 544:
- 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.
Translations
[edit](transitive) to make (something) shabby; (intransitive) to become shabby
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References
[edit]- ^ “shabby, adj.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2023; “shabby, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- ^ “shabby, v.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
Further reading
[edit]- “shabby”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *skabʰ-
- English terms suffixed with -y (adjectival)
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/æbi
- Rhymes:English/æbi/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- en:Medicine
- English terms with archaic senses
- British English
- English dialectal terms
- English informal terms
- en:Veterinary medicine
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs