- 1(of buildings, clothes, objects, etc.) in poor condition because they have been used a lot synonym scruffy The outside of the house was beginning to look shabby. She wore shabby old jeans and a T-shirt.
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- 2(of a person) badly dressed in clothes that have been worn a lot synonym scruffy The old man was shabby and unkempt.
- 3(of behavior) unfair or unreasonable synonym shoddy She tried to make up for her shabby treatment of him. a shabby affair It was a shabby way to treat visitors.
NAmE//ˈʃæbəli//
adverb shabbily dressed I think you were very shabbily treated. NAmE//ˈʃæbinəs//
noun [uncountable]See shabby in the Oxford Advanced Learner's DictionaryCheck pronunciation: shabby