shabby.
Of clothing, a place, etc.: unkempt and worn or otherwise in poor condition due to age or neglect; scruffy.
Meaning & usage
Of clothing, a place, etc.: unkempt and worn or otherwise in poor condition due to age or neglect; scruffy.
They lived in a tiny apartment, with some old, shabby furniture.
Of a person: wearing ragged or very worn, and often dirty, clothing.
The fellow arrived looking rather shabby after journeying so far.
Of a person, their behaviour, etc.: despicable, mean; also, not generous; stingy, tight-fisted.
shabby treatment
Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.
His painting is not too shabby.
Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent. Of the pulse: thready, weak.
Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent. Of weather: wet and dreary.
Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent. Chiefly of sheep: affected by shab or scab (“a skin disease”); scabby.
Where this word comes from
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). The verb is derived from the adjective. Cognates * Dutch schabbig (“poor, needy, shabby”) * Middle High German schebic (modern German schäbig (“shabby”)) * Middle Low German schabbich (“miserable”) (modern Low German schabbig, schäbbig) * Scots shabby (“in poor health, ill”) * Swedish sjabbig (“shabby, mangy, scruffy”), skabbig (“scabby”)
To make (something) shabby (adjective sense 1); to shabbify.
To become shabby; to shabbify.
Where this word comes from
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). The verb is derived from the adjective. Cognates * Dutch schabbig (“poor, needy, shabby”) * Middle High German schebic (modern German schäbig (“shabby”)) * Middle Low German schabbich (“miserable”) (modern Low German schabbig, schäbbig) * Scots shabby (“in poor health, ill”) * Swedish sjabbig (“shabby, mangy, scruffy”), skabbig (“scabby”)
Try it on your idea.
shabby has 6 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.