Meaning

7 senses
  1. Of clothing, a place, etc.: unkempt and worn or otherwise in poor condition due to age or neglect; scruffy.

    They lived in a tiny apartment, with some old, shabby furniture.

    schäbig

    ве́тхийvétxij, убо́гийubógij, жа́лкийžálkij

  2. Of a person: wearing ragged or very worn, and often dirty, clothing.

    The fellow arrived looking rather shabby after journeying so far.

    schäbig

    обветша́лыйobvetšályj, плюга́выйpljugávyj, поно́шенныйponóšennyj

  3. (figuratively)Of a person, their behaviour, etc.: despicable, mean; also, not generous; stingy, tight-fisted.

    shabby treatment

    schäbig

    по́длыйpódlyj

    mean and unworthy and despicable

  4. (figuratively)Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.

    His painting is not too shabby.

  5. Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.

    (UK, dialectal, figuratively, informal)Of weather: wet and dreary.

  6. (UK, dialectal, figuratively)Chiefly of sheep: affected by shab or scab (“a skin disease”); scabby.

  7. (archaic, figuratively)Of the pulse: thready, weak.

Examples

25 sentences
  1. He is mixed up with something shabby.

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  2. In the end, we ended up eating at that shabby restaurant.

    deSchlussendlich aßen wir in dem heruntergekommenen Restaurant.

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  3. Tom repainted his mailbox because it was looking shabby.

    deTom hat seinen Briefkasten neu gestrichen, weil er nicht mehr schön aussah.

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  4. Tom's clothes were shabby.

    ruОдежда у Тома была потрёпанная.

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  5. Tom was wearing shabby clothes.

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Translations

6 languages
Русский
By meaning 3
of clothing, a place, etc.: unkempt and worn or otherwise in poor condition due to age or neglect — see also worn:
of a person: wearing ragged or very worn, and often dirty, clothing:
of a person, their behaviour, etc.: despicable, mean — see also despicable, mean:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
of clothing, a place, etc.: unkempt and worn or otherwise in poor condition due to age or neglect — see also worn:

Origin

The adjective is derived from shab (“(obsolete except UK, dialectal) scaly skin disease; s

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).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

shabbier, shabbiest
Comparativeshabbier Lesson
Superlativeshabbiest Lesson

regular

Synonyms

80 synonyms

Word family

7 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
shabby — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto