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Webster 1913 Edition


Sordid

Sor′did

,
Adj.
[L.
sordidus
, fr.
sordere
to be filthy or dirty; probably akin to E.
swart
: cf. F.
sordide
. See
Swart
,
Adj.
]
1.
Filthy; foul; dirty.
[Obs.]
A
sordid
god; down from his hoary chin
A length of beard descends, uncombed, unclean.
Dryden.
2.
Vile; base; gross; mean;
as, vulgar,
sordid
mortals
.
“To scorn the sordid world.”
Milton.
3.
Meanly avaricious; covetous; niggardly.
He may be old,
And yet
sordid
, who refuses gold.
Sir J. Denham.

Webster 1828 Edition


Sordid

SOR'DID

,
Adj.
[L. sordidus, form sordes, filth.]
1.
Filthy; foul; dirty; gross. There Charon stands a sordid god. [This literal sense is nearly obsolete.]
2.
Vile; base; mean; as vulgar, sordid mortals.
3.
Meanly avaricious; covetous; niggardly. He may be old and yet not sordid, who refuses gold.

Definition 2024


sordid

sordid

English

Adjective

sordid (comparative sordider, superlative sordidest)

  1. Dirty or squalid.
  2. Morally degrading.
    • 1912, Willa Cather, The Bohemian Girl
      He rode slowly home along the deserted road, watching the stars come out in the clear violet sky.They flashed softly into the limpid heavens, like jewels let fall into clear water. They were a reproach, he felt, to a sordid world.
  3. Grasping.

Synonyms

  • See also Wikisaurus:greedy

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