Shabby

How to spell shabby

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce shabby

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does shabby mean?

1. adjectiveIn poor condition through wear, neglect, or age; worn out or run-down.
2. adjectiveMean, unfair, or contemptible in the way someone is treated or behaves.

Shabby in a sentence

• He wore a shabby old coat with frayed cuffs to the interview.

• It was shabby of the company to cut his pension without warning.

• The hotel looked shabby and neglected, with peeling paint in every room.

• The loyal staff received shabby treatment after years of service.

Where does shabby come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Shabby grew out of the old English noun 'shab', a now-obscure word for a scab or, by extension, a mean or contemptible fellow, which traces back to the Old English sceabb meaning a scab or skin disease. That same Old English root is the direct ancestor of the modern word 'scab', so shabby and scab are essentially cousins. By the middle of the seventeenth century 'shab' had picked up the adjective form shabby, used to describe people whose clothes were worn, threadbare, or in poor repair, much as a scabby surface looks rough and damaged. From clothing the sense widened to cover anything run-down or dilapidated, and then broadened further into a moral sense, describing behaviour that is contemptible, unfair, or beneath someone. The doubled 'b' before the -y is the spelling trap, mirroring the pattern in words like shabbier and shabbiest.

How the word is built

• shab (worn/scab, from Old English sceabb)
• -by (adjective suffix)