Etymology

• UnknownCategory:English terms with unknown etymologies#SHODDY, but possibly from shoad (“loose stone and rubble; fragments”), equivalent to shoad +‎ -yCategory:English terms suffixed with -y#SHODDY; or possibly from the Arabic word for reuse. Shoad was of inferior quality for building.
• The modern adjectival sense was apparently derived from inexpensive shoddy (“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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈʃɒd.i/, [ˈʃɔd.i]Category:English 2-syllable words#SHODDYCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#SHODDY

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

    Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#SHODDY
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈʃɑ.di/, [ˈʃɒ.ɾi]Category:English 2-syllable words#SHODDYCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#SHODDY

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#SHODDY
• Homophones: shawty (cot–caught merger, flapping); shotty (cot–caught merger, flapping)Category:English terms with homophones#SHODDY
• Rhymes: -ɒdiCategory:Rhymes:English/ɒdi#SHODDYCategory:Rhymes:English/ɒdi/2 syllables#SHODDY

Adjective

shoddy (comparative shoddier, superlative shoddiest)Category:English lemmas#SHODDYCategory:English adjectives#SHODDYCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#SHODDYCategory:Pages with entries#SHODDYCategory:Pages with 1 entry#SHODDY

1. (of goods) Of poor quality or construction.

   Near-synonym: spottyCategory:English links with manual fragments#SHODDY

   Do not settle for shoddy knives if you are serious about cooking.Category:English terms with usage examples#SHODDY

2. (of quality) Poor; low.

   Synonyms: cruddy, lousy, trashy; see also Thesaurus:low-quality

   Near-synonym: spottyCategory:English links with manual fragments#SHODDY

   Do not settle for shoddy quality in your kitchen knives.Category:English terms with usage examples#SHODDY

3. (datedCategory:English dated terms#SHODDY) Pretentious, sham, counterfeit.
4. (datedCategory:English dated terms#SHODDY) Ambitious by reason of newly-acquired wealth; nouveau riche.

Noun

shoddy (countable and uncountable, plural shoddies)Category:English lemmas#SHODDYCategory:English nouns#SHODDYCategory:English uncountable nouns#SHODDYCategory:English countable nouns#SHODDYCategory:English countable nouns#SHODDYCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#SHODDYCategory:Pages with entries#SHODDYCategory:Pages with 1 entry#SHODDY

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”, in The Anglo-Saxon, page 123:

     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 of shoddy, which, in fact, is “occasionally worn by everybody. The beautiful woollen table covers are made wholly of shoddy, being printed by aqua-fortis from designs drawn in London and Manchester, and cut on holly and other blocks, on the spot.”

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHODDY

   • 1918, Henry J. Spooner, Wealth from Waste: Elimination of Waste A World Problem, George Routledge & Sons, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 200:

     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 termed shoddy.

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHODDY

   • 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford, published 2003, page 324:

     To fill contracts for hundreds of thousands of uniforms, textile manufacturers compressed the fibers of recycled woolen goods into a material called “shoddy”.

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHODDY

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
2. (datedCategory:English dated terms#SHODDY) Worthless goods.
3. (colloquialCategory:English colloquialisms#SHODDY, datedCategory:English dated terms#SHODDY) Vulgar pretence or sham.