How to use lousy in a sentence

32 example sentences · adjective

Lousy means insufficient and less than expected of a good thing. Example: “I worked here all summer and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.”

Examples of lousy by meaning

adjectiveInsufficient and less than expected of a good thing.

I worked here all summer and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.

adjectiveRemarkably bad; of poor quality.

No offense, but his cooking is lousy.
Must have been a lousy school.2021 September 15, Unknown minister, Singapore Parliament debates on 15 September 2021

adjectiveDirty or untidy.

I cleaned the lousy garage.

adjectiveUnderhanded; mean; contemptible.

I've had enough of lousy backstabbing at this place.

adjectiveUnwell; under the weather.

I caught a cold and I've been feeling lousy all week.

adjectiveFilled or packed (with something, usually bad).

The place was lousy with students.
Certainly the Palace was lousy with it.1945, John Steinbeck, Cannery Row
Apparently North America was lousy with ancient gods.2016, Rick Riordan, The Hammer of Thor, page 6

More sentences with lousy

He'd make a bad soldier, since he's a lousy shot.From the entry shot
He was cursing his lousy tendency of aggressive nose-picking, like a Rhinotillexomaniac.2022, Jayaraj.V.Thoppil, The Mask-Gen Chronicles. From the entry rhinotillexomaniac
Skinny, lousy face, brown hair with a cowlick as big as Sputtnik.2018, William Francis Jack, Alter Boy Rules, Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN. From the entry alter
This was during the Ming Dynasty, when the seas around China were lousy with pirates.2011 September 7, “Matsu Islands”, in GlobalSecurity.org, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2011. From the entry Peikan
Turning your own librophile approach, against you, I'd have to say that your opinions make lousy references.2005 April 7, 1X2Willows, “Re: Todays Bible Lesson”, in alt.religion.druid (Usenet), message-ID…. From the entry librophile
Jack Kerouac, standing up there and improvising poems to jazz, was a lousy poet.1991, Agni, page 156. From the entry lamester
Not as bad as these guys, of course, but lousy enough.1991, Agni, page 156. From the entry lamester
Ah, ya ain't worried bouta a lousy twenny cents are ya?1990, Alan Duff, Once were warriors. From the entry twenny
“You lousy, fornicating pimp!” he said, his voice shaking with fury.1958, A.G. Yates, The Cold Dark Hours, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 202. From the entry fornicating
“What a stinking, lousy thing it is,” mutters the pantie manufacturer.1950, Turnley Walker, Rise Up and Walk, page 32. From the entry pantie
They challenged my knowledge of the book, suggested that my article would inevitably be lousy and concluded that J.1995 December 22, Adam Green, “If Holden Caulfield Spent a Weekend in Today's Manhattan”, in New York Times, retrieved 03 Jun 2019. From the entry on someone's dime
It’s a lousy thing, if you ask me, Jews ruining a neighborhood just to make money like Judas did.1934, James T. Farrell, chapter 21, in The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan, page 298. From the entry shonnicker
“That lousy ring wasn’t worth no grand.1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 12, in Red Harvest. From the entry swell
It's prepared from lots of lousy cooking oil, preserved vegetables, soggy low-quality rice and omelette with more air and oil than egg inside.2020, Chan Joon Yee, “What Do I Eat?”, in Not Quite over the Hill: Swinging My Way to 60 and beyond, [S.l.]: Dewdrop Books. From the entry Singaporean
A few lousy days at Camp Minnehaha spent extracting oar splinters from your palms and taking group lanyard lessons under the full noonday sun.2008, Natalie Angier, The Canon, page 58. From the entry lanyard
A headache on three lousy beers!1990, Stephen King, The Moving Finger. From the entry you buy cheap, you get cheap
These Mamma’s boys make lousy husbands.1976 January 6, Abigail Van Buren [pseudonym; Pauline Phillips], “Dear Abby: More on Back-seat Mothers-in-law”, in The Daily Freeman…. From the entry mamma's boy
That "Legs," I hate it and the little vonce knows it, so of course he's hittin me where I live, my lousy bowlegs.1963, Irvin Faust, Entering Angel's world: a student-centered casebook, page 57. From the entry vonce
Don't you see, laddie, you're much too valuable to squander your energies playing the lousy short con, suffering the cop roustings and head bustings, the chump change scores.2012, Iceberg Slim, Long White Con: The Biggest Score of His Life, page 12. From the entry busting
Unless your name is Snow White, waiting around for Prince (or Princess) Charming to save you from wicked stepmothers and fat seatmates is a lousy strategy.2012 March 15, Philip Galanes, “Silence Doesn’t Fly Here”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN…. From the entry Princess Charming
You are a clown and a coward, Kirby Winter — a lousy, neurotic, mixed-up coward, and yet you go around making women believe you’re a gay dog.1962, John D. MacDonald, (Please provide the book title or journal name). From the entry gay dog
Jean seemed to be considering my proposition, almost as if I'd asked her up to my hotel room instead of over to a lousy cooktent for a cup of coffee.2017, Ed McBain, Don't Crowd Me. From the entry cooktent
So I told this guy if he thought I was going to start putting out for a lousy part in some equity-waiver theater, he was out of his freeping mind.1986, Gary Brandner, Carrion, page 5. From the entry freeping

Meaning of lousy

adjective Insufficient and less than expected of a good thing.
adjective Remarkably bad; of poor quality.
adjective Dirty or untidy.

Full definition of lousy

Questions about lousy in a sentence

How do you use lousy in a sentence?: Lousy is used as an adjective. For example: “I worked here all summer and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.”
What is a short sentence with lousy?: “I cleaned the lousy garage.”
What does lousy mean?: Lousy means insufficient and less than expected of a good thing.

Adapted from Wiktionary: lousy (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use lousy in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/lousy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.