I. ˈshädē, -di noun
( -es )
Etymology: origin unknown
1.
a. : wool of better quality and longer staple than mungo reclaimed from unfelted materials, rags, or waste and usually mixed with new wool before reusing
b. : a fabric often of inferior quality manufactured in whole or in part from reclaimed wool (as shoddy)
2.
a. : refuse, inferior, imitation, or pretentiously vulgar articles or matter
cheap shoddy for oak and mahogany — H.J.Massingham
show up a younger generation of writers as the blunted manufacturers of shoddy they are — Times Literary Supplement
b. : a pretentious vulgarity in way of life especially from the exploitation of newly or underhandedly acquired wealth
preserved itself inviolate from respectability and shoddy and the invasions of twentieth-century commonplaceness — Robert Lynd
3. : reclaimed rubber
II. adjective
( -er/-est )
1. : made wholly or in part of shoddy
shoddy cloth
a shoddy uniform
2.
a. : falsely claiming moral worth and social status
shoddy aristocracy
b. : cheaply imitative or vulgarly pretentious
antique metalware is sold here as well as the shoddiest machine-made articles — American Guide Series: New York City
a great deal of distinctly shoddy veneered furniture was turned out — S.F.Horn
c. : employing, consisting of, or made by hasty, scamping, or unsound methods
had done as cheap and shoddy a job as he could do — Thomas Wolfe
the construction of the shattered dam had been shoddy — Louis Bromfield
d. : appearing sordid or squalid especially through wear or use : shabby , run-down
sitting on a couch in the shoddy hotel lobby — Knox Burger
shoddy second-hand clothes
e. : vaguely reprehensible : disreputable
a shoddy military adventurer had plunged his country into civil war — Anthony West
the whole shoddy fraud was disclosed — R.L.Riggs