English

Adjective

shoddy ‎(comparative shoddier, superlative shoddiest)

1. Of poor quality or construction

   Do not settle for shoddy knives if you are serious about cooking.

Translations

Noun

shoddy ‎(countable and uncountable, plural shoddies)

1. A low-grade cloth made from by-products of wool processing, or from recycled wool.
   • 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.”

   • 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford 2003, p. 324:

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

Translations

References

See also

• rag and shoddy
• mungo
• noil