as in dusty
severely lacking in cleanliness
My friend thinks that scuzzy dive bar has "character," but the smell alone is enough to keep me far away from that place.
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Recent Examples of scuzzy
Back in New York, following Marty’s unimaginable defeat in London, Abel Ferrara appears as a scuzzy street-level gangster who entrusts Marty and his taxi-driving best friend Wally (Tyler Okonma) with his near feral dog.
—
Peter Debruge, Variety, 1 Dec. 2025
Knight convincingly takes us back to the grimy, scuzzy streets of 1880s East London for a showdown in and out of the boxing ring.
—Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 20 Feb. 2025
Gorgeously textured and frequently very funny—Griffin’s wisecracking younger brother, Oren, is a scene-stealer—the book’s particular portrait of late-20th-century, upper-middle-class adolescence takes a generously wide angle, reveling in all the heady, scuzzy, confusing bits of coming of age.
—Vogue, 26 Dec. 2024
The safety curtain that greets audiences filing in for the third Broadway revival of Glengarry Glen Ross depicts a set of steak knives, the infamous second prize in a contest for the highest sales figures among colleagues at a scuzzy Chicago real estate office.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for scuzzy
Peter Debruge, Variety, 1 Dec. 2025
Knight convincingly takes us back to the grimy, scuzzy streets of 1880s East London for a showdown in and out of the boxing ring.
—Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 20 Feb. 2025
Gorgeously textured and frequently very funny—Griffin’s wisecracking younger brother, Oren, is a scene-stealer—the book’s particular portrait of late-20th-century, upper-middle-class adolescence takes a generously wide angle, reveling in all the heady, scuzzy, confusing bits of coming of age.
—Vogue, 26 Dec. 2024
The safety curtain that greets audiences filing in for the third Broadway revival of Glengarry Glen Ross depicts a set of steak knives, the infamous second prize in a contest for the highest sales figures among colleagues at a scuzzy Chicago real estate office.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for scuzzy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scuzzy
Adjective
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If that bottle hiding in the back of your bar cart is dusty and doesn't taste the same, buy a fresh one.—
Kait Hanson,
Southern Living,
29 May 2026
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The shoes also come in a range of standout colorways, including an electric orange-and-blue combo and an off-white-and-dusty-gray pair.—
Annie Blackman,
InStyle,
29 May 2026
Adjective
-
And some of the best evidence of the lovebugs’ comeback came last week at the Turkey Lake Service Plaza on Florida’s Turnpike, where filthy, splattered cars and trucks queued up before the plaza’s automatic windshield washer.—
Martin E. Comas,
The Orlando Sentinel,
27 May 2026
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But a visually unappealing toilet seat could make an otherwise tidy bathroom look unexpectedly filthy—and there may really be more dirt and germs there than meet the eye, too.—
Louise Parks,
Martha Stewart,
25 May 2026
Adjective
-
The key is choosing unsaturated fats over the fried and greasy options that tend to trigger side effects.—
Samantha Agate,
Kansas City Star,
28 May 2026
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Another factor to note is the color and texture of the flakes themselves; dandruff tends to be yellowish-white, fine, and greasy, while psoriasis produces flakes that are silvery-white, thick, and dry.—
Petra Guglielmetti,
Glamour,
27 May 2026
Adjective
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In the late 1960s and early ’70s, for example, Nilsson completed a series of silver ink drawings on black paper that nod to Indigenous Australian bark paintings.—
Jeremy Lybarger,
Artforum,
2 June 2026
-
Qin Qin is an Asian fusion restaurant—available only to Diamond Club guests—whose menu blends Mayan ingredients with Asian staples, with dishes like Peking duck with black mole sauce, and cochinita pibil dumplings with yuzu foam and pickled red onions.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
2 June 2026
Adjective
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My father was running the skid steer outside, clearing the snow, leaving dirty white mounds to either side of the driveway that led from the house out to the range road.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 June 2026
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Workers have told us that even wiping sweat from their face can be criticized because supervisors worry about the garment getting dirty.—
Jasmin Malik Chua,
Footwear News,
2 June 2026
Adjective
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The land, unfenced, abuts a bald blackened hillside that must be public land.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 Aug. 2025
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In its time open, fueled by fans of its blackened mahi and buttery lobster rolls, owner Mike Smith has expanded his footprint, moving into a larger stall in the popular food hall — which has allowed for a menu expansion, as well.—
Amy Drew Thompson,
Orlando Sentinel,
6 Dec. 2022
Adjective
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As polished-glam and old-Hollywood as the references were, there were moments that also felt sleazy and fun in the way that Hollywood in 2007 did, when getting photographed pouring out of a car on the way into the club was a rite of passage and full of its own twisted promise.—
Julissa James,
Los Angeles Times,
15 May 2026
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Within a decade, TMZ made its name with a combination of sleazy and sensational celebrity news.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
24 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Not a shabby situation down there in Texas.—
Bennett Durando,
Denver Post,
29 May 2026
-
The result is a compassionate, elegant, unsettling book about some extremely shabby people.—
Dan Piepenbring,
Harpers Magazine,
26 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Scuzzy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scuzzy. Accessed 4 Jun. 2026.
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