slipshod
adjective
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The word shod is the past tense form of the verb shoe, meaning "to furnish with a shoe"; hence, we can speak of shoeing horses and horses that have been shod or shodden. When the word slipshod was first used in the late 1500s, it meant "wearing loose shoes or slippers"—such slippers were once called slip-shoes—and later it was used to describe shoes that were falling apart. By the early 1800s, slipshod was used more generally as a synonym for shabby—in 1818, Sir Walter Scott wrote about "the half-bound and slip-shod volumes of the circulating library." The association with shabbiness then shifted to an association with sloppiness, and the word was used to mean "careless" or "slovenly."
Examples of slipshod in a Sentence
Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 13 Aug. 2025
Saturday's game was a low point, as the Mets lost 7-4 to the Milwaukee Brewers after a four-run seventh inning that was aided by some slipshod defense.
—Jackson Roberts, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Aug. 2025
Musk has become a bogeyman for Democrats, who say his cuts to government are slipshod and putting Americans at risk.
—Tara Suter, The Hill, 19 Mar. 2025
Republican poll watching during the 2020 Presidential election was something of a slipshod endeavor, more of a last-minute suggestion than a concerted effort; this year, the R.N.C. and the Trump campaign celebrated National Poll Watcher Week.
—Antonia Hitchens, The New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for slipshod
Cite this Entry
“Slipshod.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slipshod. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
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slipshod
adjective
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