shoddy

shod·dy | \ ˈshä-dē

How to pronounce shoddy (audio)

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Definition of shoddy

(Entry 1 of 2)

1a : a reclaimed wool from materials that are not felted that is of better quality and longer staple than mungo

b : a fabric often of inferior quality manufactured wholly or partly from reclaimed wool

2a : inferior, imitative, or pretentious articles or matter

b : pretentious vulgarity

shoddy

shoddier; shoddiest

Definition of shoddy (Entry 2 of 2)

1 : made wholly or partly of shoddy

2a : cheaply imitative : vulgarly pretentious shoddy merchandise

b : hastily or poorly done : inferior shoddy workmanship

c : shabby, disreputable shoddy business deals

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Examples of shoddy in a Sentence

Adjective They gave a shoddy performance. shoddy merchandise that soon fell to pieces

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun Recycled pop bottles are made into carpets and seat linings, and cotton shoddy—used to make blue jeans—is recycled and turned into sound insulation. — Katherine Lagrave, Condé Nast Traveler, "What the Road Trip Looks Like in 2030," 20 July 2018 That never quite offset his shoddy blocking, unfortunately, which cost him playing time last season. — Andy Benoit, SI.com, "True NFL Draft Grades: 2014 Draft, Four Years Later," 8 May 2018 Coby Fleener is too unreliable as a receiver to offset his shoddy blocking. — Andy Benoit, SI.com, "NFL Draft Needs: All 32 Teams," 25 Apr. 2018 Only traditional organic feeds such as the shoddy are allowed — Craig Ballinger, Slate Magazine, "The Dark State of British Rhubarb," 20 Mar. 2017 In her motion for exoneration, filed in Wyandotte County District Court in June 2016, Pilate laid out a story of false arrest, conviction and imprisonment involving a shoddy and corrupted police investigation as well as prosecutorial misconduct. — Eric Adler, kansascity.com, "Falsely imprisoned for 23 years? Court to hear evidence on freeing Lamonte McIntyre," 26 Apr. 2017 Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective The Times’s visual investigation team built a 3-D model of the scene and pieced together critical sequences of events to show how poor planning and shoddy police work led to a fatal outcome. — New York Times, "Louisville Officer Who Shot Breonna Taylor Will Be Fired," 29 Dec. 2020 The love story is bland, and the production value is shoddy. — Kate Knibbs, Wired, "Can Disaster Movies Survive a Pandemic?," 25 Dec. 2020 While the fire began at the O’Leary barn on the Near Southwest Side, shoddy wood construction fueled its terrifying spread. — Blair Kamin, chicagotribune.com, "Column: From the Great Fire to modernist houses to Jeanne Gang, a rich array of design books for the holidays," 10 Dec. 2020 Raoult’s work would soon be shown to be shoddy and possibly fraudulent. — Jeanne Lenzer, Scientific American, "The COVID Science Wars," 30 Nov. 2020 When the stadium’s 80 percent empty, suddenly the NRG Stadium WiFi hums like Dalvin Cook strolling through a shoddy Texans defense. — Matt Young, Houston Chronicle, "Here's what it was like being one of 12,000 fans at the Texans game," 5 Oct. 2020 Beyond identical 3-5 records, the Lions are dealing with familiar problems such as shoddy run defense, the inability to hold a lead and not enough resilience to bounce back when things go wrong. — Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press, "Detroit Lions midseason grades: Assigning all the blame for 3-5 start," 14 Nov. 2020 Post-election analysis right now is based on some very shoddy numbers. — Gilad Edelman, Wired, "The Pre-Election Polls Were Wrong. The Exit Polls Are Worse," 11 Nov. 2020 She awards Chrishell and Gleb two points for keeping it tight, even with some shoddy footwork. — Maggie Fremont, EW.com, "Dancing With the Stars recap: There's no double elimination, but the pressure is still on," 3 Nov. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'shoddy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Shoddy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shoddy. Accessed 17 Jan. 2021.

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