shabbiness

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The film follows an English family between the world wars and emphasizes the dull shabbiness of the setting’s middle-class life, the house and costumes coming in every shade of brown.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 10, 2026

The beauties are the glamor routes, the passenger trains that, whatever shabbiness may have befallen their interiors, more than make up for it with the grandeur of what lies outside their windows.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 7, 2023

There were plenty of interesting design twists: One jean jacket in Japanese denim had a regal stiffness, which nicely contrasting with the shabbiness of one of its breast pockets being missing.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 24, 2022

At first, the joke appears to be about the corporate sham of fancifying such shabbiness.

From New York Times • Dec. 20, 2017

It was, for a long time, in spite of—or, not inconceivably, because of—the shabbiness of my motives, my only sustenance, my meat and drink.

From "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin