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shoddy

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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  • Unknown, but possibly fromshoad(“loose stone and rubble; fragments”), equivalent toshoad +‎-y; or possibly from the Arabic word for reuse. Shoad was of inferior quality for building.
  • The modern adjectival sense was apparently derived from inexpensiveshoddy(“fabric from wool-processing byproduct”), which was not really suitable for (but was sometimes still used for) things such as military uniforms at the beginning of the US Civil War.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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shoddy (comparativeshoddier,superlativeshoddiest)

  1. (of goods) Ofpoorquality orconstruction.
    Near-synonym:spotty
    Do not settle forshoddy knives if you are serious about cooking.
  2. (of quality) Poor; low.
    Do not settle forshoddy quality in your kitchen knives.
    Near-synonym:spotty
  3. (dated)Pretentious,sham,counterfeit.
  4. (dated)Ambitiousby reason ofnewly-acquiredwealth;nouveau riche.

Derived terms

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Translations

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of poor quality—see alsoshabby,‎janky

Noun

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shoddy (countable anduncountable,pluralshoddies)

  1. A low-grade cloth made from by-products of wool processing, or from recycled wool.
    Hypernyms:cloth,fabric,textile,material(fabric sense) <material(matter sense),matter,stuff
    Coordinate terms:mungo,noil
    • 1849, “A Statistical Outline of the Present Condition & Progress of the Anglo-Saxon Race”, inThe Anglo-Saxon, page123:
      Formerly,shoddy cloth was “used only for padding, and such like purposes, but now blankets, flushings, druggets, carpets, and table covers, cloth for pilot and Petersham great” coats, &c., are either wholly or partly made ofshoddy, which, in fact, is “occasionally worn by everybody. The beautiful woollen table covers are made wholly ofshoddy, being printed by aqua-fortis from designs drawn in London and Manchester, and cut on holly and other blocks, on the spot.”
    • 1918, Henry J. Spooner,Wealth from Waste: Elimination of Waste A World Problem, George Routledge & Sons,→ISBN,→OCLC,→OL,page200:
      Shoddy is a cloth made from worn woollen things, old stockings, druggets, etc., which were formerly only used for the production of inferior paper, wallpaper, etc., but which were more often thrown on the waste-heap. These odds and ends are now raw materials for inexpensive clothing fabrics. The woollen things are torn to pieces by a machine having spiked rollers (termed a devil), cleansed, and the fibre spun with a certain proportion of new wool, the yarn being afterwards woven into the full-bodied but flimsy fabric termedshoddy.
    • 1988, James McPherson,Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford, published2003, page324:
      To fill contracts for hundreds of thousands of uniforms, textile manufacturers compressed the fibers of recycled woolen goods into a material called “shoddy”.
  2. (dated)Worthlessgoods.
  3. (colloquial, dated)Vulgarpretence orsham.

Derived terms

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Translations

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low-grade cloth made from used wool or wool byproducts

References

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