▪ I. shabby, a.
(ˈʃæbɪ)
[f. shab n. + -y. Cf. scabby; also LG. schabbig, schäbbig, MHG. schebic (mod.G. schäbig = sense 1 below).
‘A word that has crept into conversation and low writing; but ought not to be admitted into the language’ (J.).]
1. a. That has lost its newness or freshness of appearance; dingy and faded from wear or exposure. Said of clothes, furniture, houses, etc.
| 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2070/4 Having a Gray Coloured Coat and a shabby Perriwig. 1716 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess of Bristol 22 Aug., In the other, you see a sort of shabby finery. 1763 R. Lloyd New-River Head 11 With the drap'ry she had got Within her little shabby cot. 1765 Goldsm. Ess. xxi. [vi.] ¶1 A man in very shabby cloaths. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xvi, There was a stream of people pouring into a shabby house. 1866 G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. vi. (1878) 82 It was an old book in very shabby binding. 1884 W. C. Smith Kildrostan 65, I should have been a poacher In shabby velveteen. 1889 Jessopp Coming of Friars iii. 123 The surest token that a monastery was in a bad way was that its church was in a shabby condition. |
b. Of persons, their appearance, etc.: Poorly-dressed, ‘seedy’.
| 1669 Ogilby Odyss. xxiii. 334 Shabby my looks, so mean my garments be, That for her lord she'll not acknowledge me. 1688 Clarendon Diary 7 Dec., They were very shabby fellows, pitifully mounted, and worse armed. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Shabby, in poor, sorry Rigging. 1782 F. Burney Cecilia ii. i, [She] was shewn, by a little shabby footboy, into a parlour. 1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal II. ix. 179 He lived with a shabby old half-pay father. |
c. transf. Discreditably inferior in quality, making a poor appearance.
| 1805 T. F. Fremantle Let. 1 Aug. in P. Fremantle Wynne Diaries (1940) III. vii. 195, I shall not apologise..for the very shabby letters I have been..writing to you. 1820 Lady Granville Lett. (1894) I. 191 Excuse this shabby letter. 1824 Syd. Smith Wks. (1859) II. 46/2 We Scotch, who live in a little shabby scraggy corner of a remote island. 1852 Thackeray Esmond ii. xiv, My Lord Duke's entertainments were both seldom and shabby. 1865 Mill Exam. Hamilton 448 Who, then, would expect such shabby, not arguments, but mists of arguments, as the author presents us with. 1880 E. A. Freeman in W. R. W. Stephens Life & Lett. (1895) II. 198 Unless they have mended their ways at Laon since 1869, you will hear the shabbiest of masses there. |
2. a. Of persons, their actions, etc.: Contemptibly mean, ungenerous, or dishonourable. Often applied, in a lighter tone, to conduct which is less friendly or generous than one had hoped for.
| 1679 J. Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.) Charac. Tory Wks. 1729 II. 66 These shabby fellows who pretend to be robbed. a 1720 Sewel Hist. Quakers vii. (1722) 374 Among these was a shabby Fellow, who to get Victuals without working, had thrust himself among the Quakers. 1763 Ld. Holland in Jesse Selwyn & Contemp. (1843) I. 270 Stephen gives his compliments, but says you left Paris in a shabby manner. 1840 Thackeray Bedford-Row Consp. i, It was voted a shabby excuse. 1850 Smedley Frank Fairlegh xv, It would be horribly shabby of you to desert us now. 1892 W. S. Gilbert Mountebanks i, What shabby things a man will do when he's eaten up with jealousy. |
b. Mean or ungenerous in giving or paying.
| 1766 [Anstey] Bath Guide v. 7 So I took out my Purse, as I hate to be shabby. 1863 P. Barry Dockyard Econ. 154 The Admiralty, always generous to profusion to unworthy people,..is shabby to the sailor. |
c. Of a gift or the like: Small or poor as estimated by the giver's means.
| 1753 J. Collier Art Torment. ii. iii. (1811) 139 Make him some shabby allowance, hardly enough to keep him from starving. 1857 Livingstone Trav. S. Africa iii. 68, I, being..familiar with their customs, knew that this shabby present was an insult to us. |
3. † a. ? Dirty, muddy. Obs. rare—1.
| 1705 Berkeley Cave of Dunmore Wks. 1871 IV. 504 A spacious vault, the bottom whereof is always shabby by reason of the continual distillation of rock-water. |
b. dial. and colloq. Of weather: Wet and unpleasant.
| 1853 D. G. Rossetti Let. 12 July (1965) I. 148 The weather had been generally very shabby. 1855 Whitby Gloss. s.v., A wet shabby day. 1950 W. Stevens Let. 1 Feb. (1967) 663 While we have had an occasional day of proper winter, mostly it has been pretty shabby. |
4. Of the pulse: Weak.
| 1843 R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xiv. 175 His pulse was 140 in a minute and remarkably shabby. 1906 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 13 Jan. 70 A rapid shabby pulse. |
5. dial. Diseased with ‘shab’ or scab; = scabby 1.
App. the original meaning, though not recorded early.
| 1825 Jennings Obs. Dial. W. Eng. 66 Shabby, affected with the shab. 1886 W. Somerset Word-bk. s.v., They sheep be shabby. |
6. Comb., as † shabby-looked, shabby-looking adjs.
| 1705 S. Centlivre Gamester i. i, But, Sir, here was a kind of a—kind of a shabby-look'd fellow. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xl. (1856) 365 We are an uncouth, snobby, and withal, shabby-looking set of varlets. |
▸ colloq.not (too) shabby: impressive, very good; ‘not bad’.
| 1975 N.Y. Times 14 Apr. 44/1, I don't get down on myself when I don't win. I gave it my best, and 66 and 65 [i.e. golf scores] are not too shabby. 1980 Christian Sci. Monitor (Electronic ed.) 25 Sept. You take a 17, 18-year-old kid who makes 25 grand, that's not too shabby. 1990 Independent 2 Apr. 8/5 It's still a big lead—it's still double digits plus one. That's not shabby for the first woman to run. 1997 Cosmopolitan (U.K. ed.) May 104/1 The salary's not too shabby: {pstlg}40,000 is average, and it shoots up if you specialise. |
▪ II. shabby, v.
(ˈʃæbɪ)
[f. the adj.]
1. intr. To act shabbily. rare.
| 1898 M. Deland Old Chester Tales 213 ‘They'll be shabbying on me,’ said Katy. |
2. trans. and intr. To make or become shabby.
| 1912 Daily Chron. 5 Mar. 9/2 She will probably find that a good deal of the..‘shabbying’ of her clothes is caused by..throwing her dresses carelessly down on chairs. 1920 H. Begbie Life of W. Booth I. iii. 56 The shadow of poverty deepening every day upon the shabbying walls of his unhappy home. 1962 D. Lessing Golden Notebk. iv. 536 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. |