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Shabby vs Clatty - What's the difference?

shabby | clatty |

As adjectives the difference between shabby and clatty

is that shabby is torn or worn; poor; mean; ragged while clatty is used to describe people, places, and objects that are a bit shabby, dirty, 70's, greasy.

As a noun clatty is

a shabby, slovenly person.

shabby

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Torn or worn; poor; mean; ragged.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.}}
    They lived in a tiny apartment, with some old, shabby furniture.
  • Clothed with ragged, much worn, or soiled garments.
  • The fellow arrived looking rather shabby after journeying so far.
  • Mean; paltry; despicable.
  • shabby treatment

    Derived terms

    * shabby-genteel (Webster 1913)

    clatty

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Used to describe people, places, and objects that are a bit shabby, dirty, 70's, greasy.
  • Noun

    (clatties)
  • A shabby, slovenly person.
  • References

    * clatty'', ''The English Dialect of Donegal: A Glossary , by Michael Traynor, Royal Irish Academy: 1953, Page 53.