shoddy

shoddy is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 2 senses. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.A fabric of inferior quality made of, or containing a large amount of, shoddy. Note: 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.
  2. 2.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.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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