sleazy

Adjective

sleazy (comparative sleazier, superlative sleaziest)

1. Marked by low quality; inferior; inadequate.
   • There were two or three all-night diners to choose from and they pushed through the door that announced GOOD EATS in the brightest neon. It was the usual sleazy food-machine - two tired waitresses behind a zinc counter loaded with cigarettes and candy and paperbacks and comics.1954, Ian Fleming, “The Everglades”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 118
   • Al bought my furniture at ten percent of its value and Jim drove me to a sleazy side-avenue hotel, where I obtained a room at a low rate.2014, Louis V. Rohr, The President's Hero, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 3

   Synonyms:

   ass, bad, base, below par, bottom-shelf, BTEC, bum, cheap, cheap and nasty, cheapshit

2. Raunchy or perverted in nature; tastelessly sexual.
   • Sleazy, yeah, I like it sleazy / Oh let's get nasty baby / I like it sleazy / I'll take you for a bad ride1979, “Sleazy”, in Live and Sleazy, performed by Village People
   • Nancy knew it was a sleazy movie because the channel's logo appeared in the lower right corner of the screen. This satellite station only showed sleazy films at this time of the night. Actually its selection of films was trashy at any time, but the after-eleven fare was especially so. […] It's...2000, Stephen D. Dighton, Locked In, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 226

   Synonyms:

   skeezy

3. Untrustworthy, unethical.
   • She hated Ed Feinberg, the sleazy, lying, blood-sucking small-timer. Still he was a man; if he had called her up in the old days, in Seattle, she'd have entertained him.1934, Lew Levenson, chapter VIII, in Butterfly Man
   • The Gold Dust was a sleazy place, a clip joint with crooked gambling tables in the back and a fleet of B-girls who would give you a few minutes' vapid conversation and a peek at the tops of their breasts if you bought them a three-dollar drink […]2007, Milton T. Burton, The Sweet and the Dead, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 1

   Synonyms:

   unreliable, questionable, sketchy, shady, slimy

4. (dated) Thin and flimsy.
   • Shortly after his return in infirm old age to his native land, a little narrative of his adventures, forlornly published on sleazy gray paper, appeared among the peddlers, written, probably, not by himself, but taken down from his lips by another.1855, Herman Melville, Israel Potter
   • I hesitate to describe Sophy Epstein's dress. You won't like it. In the first place, it was cut too low, front and back, for a shoe clerk in a downtown loft. It was a black dress, near-princess in style, very tight as to fit, very short as to skirt, very sleazy as to material.1912, Edna Ferber, “What She Wore”, in Buttered Side Down