shabby
adj.looking old and in bad condition because of too much use or lack of care.
adj.showing signs of wear and tear; neglected or dilapidated in appearance. Often describes clothing, furniture, or buildings that have lost their original quality.
“He wore a shabby old coat to the park.”
“The hotel lobby looked a bit shabby, with faded carpets and peeling wallpaper that hadn't been replaced in decades.”
“Despite its shabby exterior, the bookstore housed a collection of rare first editions that attracted collectors from across the country.”
Commonly used both attributively before a noun and predicatively after linking verbs like 'look' or 'become'.
The adjective is derived from shab (“(obsolete except UK, dialectal) scaly skin disease; skin disease of sheep; crust forming over wound, scab”) + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives). The verb is derived from the adjective. Cognates * Dutch schabbig (“poor, needy, shabby”) * Middle High German schebic (modern German schäbig (“shabby”)) * Middle Low German schabbich (“miserable”) (modern Low German schabbig, schäbbig) * Scots shabby (“in poor health, ill”) * Swedish sjabbig (“shabby, mangy, scruffy”), skabbig (“scabby”)
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.