shabby

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).^[1]

The verb is derived from the adjective.^[2]

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʃæbi/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æbi
• Hyphenation: shab‧by

shabby (comparative shabbier, superlative shabbiest)

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

   Synonyms: decrepit, moth-eaten, run-down, timeworn, tired; see also Thesaurus:deteriorated, Thesaurus:ramshackle

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

   • 1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, “Nicholas seeks to employ himself in a New Capacity, and being unsuccessful, accepts an engagement as Tutor in a Private Family”, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 143:

     [A]s there was a stream of people pouring into a shabby house not far from the entrance, he waited until they had made their way in, […]

   • 1867, George MacDonald, “The Bishop’s Basin”, in Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood […], volume I, London: Hurst and Blackett, publishers, successors to Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 154:

     [C]ommonplace books are generally new, or at least in fine bindings. And here was a shabby little old book, such as, if it had been commonplace, would not have been likely to be the companion of a young lady at the bottom of a quarry— […]

   • 1882, [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], “‘And Pale from the Past We Draw nigh Thee’”, in Mount Royal […], volume II, London: John and Robert Maxwell […], →OCLC, page 179:

     [They] lived […] in one of the shabbiest streets in the debatable land between Pimlico and Chelsea—by courtesy, South Belgravia.

   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

     Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.

   • 1927 May, Virginia Woolf, chapter 5, in To the Lighthouse (Uniform Edition of the Works of Virginia Woolf), new edition, London: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, […], published 1930, →OCLC, part I (The Window), page 47:

     [T]hings got shabbier and got shabbier summer after summer. The mat was fading; the wall-paper was flapping. You couldn't tell any more that those were roses on it. Still, if every door in a house is left perpetually open, and no lockmaker in the whole of Scotland can mend a bolt, things must spoil.

   • 1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 703:

     Another place where, from the aesthetic point of view, a long tunnel would have been a real blessing, is East London as viewed from the carriage window on the old Great Eastern line. Despite a vast change from crowded slums to tracts of wasteland, due to its grim wartime experience, this approach still provides a shabby and unworthy introduction to the great capital.

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

   The fellow arrived looking rather shabby after journeying so far.

   • 1765, [Oliver] Goldsmith, “Essay V”, in Essays. […], London: […] W[illiam] Griffin […], →OCLC, page 37:

     The ſame gentleman, vvhenever he vvanted credit for a ſuit of cloaths, alvvays made the propoſal in a laced coat; for he found by experience, that, if he appeared ſhabby on theſe occaſions, his taylor had taken an oath againſt truſting; […]

   • 1782, [Frances Burney], “A Man of Wealth”, in Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress. […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Payne and Son […], and T[homas] Cadell […], →OCLC, book II, page 156:

     She told her name, and vvas ſhevvn, by a little ſhabby foot-boy, into a parlour.

   • 1882, [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], “And Pale from the Past We Draw Nigh to Thee”, in Mount Royal […], volume II, London: John and Robert Maxwell […], →OCLC, page 179:

     He was an affectionate brother, always glad to do a good turn to his sisters—who lived with a shabby old half-pay father, […]

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

      (not generous): Synonyms: ungenerous; see also Thesaurus:stingy

      shabby treatment

      • 1856, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “Of the Loves of Mr. Perkins and Miss Gorgon, and of the Two Great Factions in the Town of Oldborough”, in “The Bedford-Street Conspiracy”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume III, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC, page 473:

        It was voted a shabby excuse.

      • 1857, David Livingstone, chapter III, in Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 68:

        I, being more of a native, and familiar with their customs, knew that this shabby present was an insult to us.

      • 1892 January 4 (first performance), W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, librettist; Alfred Cellier, [Ivan Caryll], composers, […] The Mountebanks, London: Chappell & Co., […], published 1892, →OCLC, Act I, page 11:

        What shabby things a man will do when he's eaten up with jealousy! But what a comfort those shabby things are to him! […] I'm disgusted with myself for having stooped to such a contemptible act.

   2. (often in the negative) Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.

      His painting is not too shabby.

      • 1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, “The Campaign of 1707, 1708”, in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. […] , volume II, London: […] Smith, Elder, & Company, […], →OCLC, page 252:

        [M]y Lord Duke's entertainments were both ſeldom and ſhabby […]

      • 1865, John Stuart Mill, “Of Some Minor Peculiarities of Doctrine in Sir William Hamilton’s View of Formal Logic”, in An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy, […], London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, →OCLC, page 448:

        So unlooked-for a paradox required to be defended by the strongest arguments: who, then, would expect such shabby, not arguments, but hints of arguments, as the author presents us with?

      1. (medicine, archaic) Of the pulse: thready, weak.
      2. (UK, dialectal or informal) Of weather: wet and dreary.
      3. (UK, dialectal, veterinary medicine) Chiefly of sheep: affected by shab or scab (“a skin disease”); scabby.

shabby (third-person singular simple present shabbies, present participle shabbying, simple past and past participle shabbied)

1. (transitive) To make (something) shabby (adjective sense 1); to shabbify.
2. (intransitive) To become shabby; to shabbify.
   • 1962, Doris Lessing, “The Golden Notebook”, in The Golden Notebook (Flamingo Modern Classics), London: Flamingo, HarperCollinsPublishers, published 1993, →ISBN, page 544:

     You'll be one of those tough, square, solid middle-aged men, like a shabbying brown bear, your golden crew-cut greying judiciously at the temples.

• “shabby”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.