shoddy

comparative shoddier · superlative shoddiest

1. Of poor quality or construction.

   Near-synonym: spotty

   1 more example

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

   Synonyms: spotty

2. Poor; low.

   Near-synonym: spotty

   1 more example

   Do not settle for shoddy quality in your kitchen knives.

   Synonyms: cruddy, lousy, trashy, ass, bad, base, below par, bottom-shelf

3. datedPretentious, sham, counterfeit.
4. datedAmbitious by reason of newly-acquired wealth; nouveau riche.

plural shoddies

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

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

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

   2 more examples

   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.”

   1849, “A Statistical Outline of the Present Condition & Progress of the Anglo-Saxon Race”, in The Anglo-Saxon, page 123

   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.

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

2. countabledateduncountableWorthless goods.
3. colloquialcountabledateduncountableVulgar pretence or sham.