shabbier; shabbiest
1
: clothed with worn or seedy garments
a shabby hobo
2
a
: threadbare and faded from wear
a shabby sofa
b
: ill-kept : dilapidated
a shabby neighborhood
3
a
: mean, despicable, contemptible
must feel shabby … because of his compromises—
Nat Hentoff
Nat Hentoff
b
: ungenerous, unfair
laments the shabby way in which this country often treated a poet—Paul Engle
Paul Engle
c
: inferior in quality
shabby reasoning
Examples of shabby in a Sentence
The furniture was old and shabby.
He wore a shabby coat.
Her first apartment was pretty shabby.
They complained about the shabby treatment they received at the hotel.
Backing out of the deal was a shabby thing to do.
Recent Examples on the Web
Our tried-and-true business and investment darling over the past two decades is growing at a little over 18% per year (not too shabby).
—Barry Libert, Forbes.com, 9 Sep. 2025
Cillian Murphy plays the titular Steve, a beloved teacher at a controversial school that uses public funds to house violent and antisocial boys in a shabby old mansion.
—Richard Lawson, IndieWire, 5 Sep. 2025
The best is when Lee finds Wendell in the shabby living quarters above the bookstore.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 4 Sep. 2025
The micro-budget production, which follows a paranoid mathematician searching for order in the chaos of numbers, established Aronofsky as a filmmaker eager to push his vision of the city as at once shabby and gorgeous.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 29 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for shabby
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Barry Libert, Forbes.com, 9 Sep. 2025
Cillian Murphy plays the titular Steve, a beloved teacher at a controversial school that uses public funds to house violent and antisocial boys in a shabby old mansion.
—Richard Lawson, IndieWire, 5 Sep. 2025
The best is when Lee finds Wendell in the shabby living quarters above the bookstore.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 4 Sep. 2025
The micro-budget production, which follows a paranoid mathematician searching for order in the chaos of numbers, established Aronofsky as a filmmaker eager to push his vision of the city as at once shabby and gorgeous.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 29 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for shabby
Cite this Entry
“Shabby.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shabby. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
shabby
adjective
shab·by
ˈshab-ē 
shabbier; shabbiest
1
: dressed in worn clothes
2
a
: worn and faded from wear
a shabby sofa
b
: ill kept : dilapidated
shabby houses
3
: not fair or generous
shabby treatment
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