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
For the design of Rory’s shabby-chic dorm suite, Crasco reflected on her own overnight stay on the New Haven, Connecticut, campus back in high school.
—Mara Reinstein, Architectural Digest, 30 Oct. 2025
Director Kim Jee-woon uses every trick in the haunted-house book when spinning the tale of two vulnerable sisters, their neglectful father, and their evil stepmother, all of whom are trapped together in a shabby (but beautifully filmed) old country house.
—Katie Rife, Entertainment Weekly, 29 Oct. 2025
The woman’s husband, a scrawny man in a shabby work uniform, smelling of sewage, drooped behind the gurney.
—Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2025
And the full-page beer list isn’t too shabby, either.
—Jared Kaufman, Twin Cities, 22 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for shabby
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Mara Reinstein, Architectural Digest, 30 Oct. 2025
Director Kim Jee-woon uses every trick in the haunted-house book when spinning the tale of two vulnerable sisters, their neglectful father, and their evil stepmother, all of whom are trapped together in a shabby (but beautifully filmed) old country house.
—Katie Rife, Entertainment Weekly, 29 Oct. 2025
The woman’s husband, a scrawny man in a shabby work uniform, smelling of sewage, drooped behind the gurney.
—Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2025
And the full-page beer list isn’t too shabby, either.
—Jared Kaufman, Twin Cities, 22 Oct. 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 1 Nov. 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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