shoddy

Meanings

Plural: shoddies

Noun

reclaimed wool fiber
A low-grade cloth made from by-products of wool processing, or from recycled wool.
Worthless goods.
Vulgar pretence or sham.

Adjective Satellite

cheap and shoddy; - Judith Crist
of inferior workmanship and materials
designed to deceive or mislead either deliberately or inadvertently
- "shoddy business practices"

Adj

Of poor quality or construction.
Pretentious, sham, counterfeit.
Ambitious by reason of newly-acquired wealth; nouveau riche.

Origin / Etymology

* Unknown, but possibly from shoad (“loose stone and rubble; fragments”), equivalent to shoad + -y; or possibly from the Arabic word for reuse. Shoad was of inferior quality for building.
* The modern adjectival sense was apparently derived from inexpensive shoddy (“fabric from wool-processing byproduct”), which was not really suitable for (but was sometimes still used for) things such as military uniforms at the beginning of the US Civil War.

Synonyms

cheapjack, deceptive, jerry-built, misleading, tawdry

Scrabble Score: 14

shoddy is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
shoddy is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
shoddy is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 12

shoddy is a valid Words With Friends word