shoddy Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun reclaimed wool fiber
  2. adjective satellite cheap and shoddy
    cheapjack; tawdry.
    • cheapjack moviemaking...that feeds on the low taste of the mob"- Judith Crist
  3. adjective satellite of inferior workmanship and materials
    jerry-built.
    • mean little jerry-built houses
  4. adjective satellite designed to deceive or mislead either deliberately or inadvertently
    misleading; deceptive.
    • the deceptive calm in the eye of the storm
    • deliberately deceptive packaging
    • a misleading similarity
    • statistics can be presented in ways that are misleading
    • shoddy business practices

WordNet

Shod"dy noun
Etymology
Perhaps fr. Shed, v. t.; as meaning originally, waste stuff shedor thrown off.
Definitions
  1. A fibrous material obtained by "deviling," or tearing into fibers, refuse woolen goods, old stockings, rags, druggets, etc. See Mungo.
  2. A fabric of inferior quality made of, or containing a large amount of, shoddy. ✍ The great quantity of shoddy goods furnished as army supplies in the late Civil War in the United States gave wide currency to the word, and it came to be applied to persons who pretend to a higher position in society than that to which their breeding or worth entitles them.
Shod"dy adjective
Definitions
  1. Made wholly or in part of shoddy; containing shoddy; as, shoddy cloth; shoddy blankets; hence, colloquially, not genuine; sham; pretentious; as, shoddy aristocracy.
    Shoddy inventions designed to bolster up a factitious pride. Compton Reade.

Webster 1913