sordid

adjective sor·did \ˈsȯr-dəd\

: very bad or dishonest

: very dirty

Full Definition of SORDID

: marked by baseness or grossness : vile <sordid motives>

a : dirty, filthy

b : wretched, squalid

: meanly avaricious : covetous

: of a dull or muddy color

— sor·did·ly adverb

— sor·did·ness noun

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Examples of SORDID

And Vermes's story is also in part an international thriller, especially with the high-level goings-on around the Scrolls. The full sordid tale of spite, scholarly selfishness, and undisguised anti-Semitism, which kept access to the Dead Sea texts restricted for decades to a tiny cartel, unwinds in his pages. —Paula Fredriksen, New Republic, 15 Oct. 2001
Another reporter working to verify the book's charges ended up unmasking author James Hatfield's sordid past, revealing how little the publisher knew about its author… —Jennifer Greenstein, Brill's Content, February 2000
In fact, audiences now have become so blasé about accounts of celebrities' sordid personal lives that some stars are turning potential publicity nightmares into confessional coups. —Stephen Rebello, Vibe, May 1999
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Origin of SORDID

Latin sordidus, from sordes dirt — more at swart

First Known Use: 1606

Related to SORDID

Synonyms: bedraggled, befouled, begrimed, bemired, besmirched, black, blackened, cruddy, dingy, draggled, dusty, filthy, foul, grimy, grotty [chiefly British], grubby, grungy, mucky, muddy, nasty, smudged, smutty, soiled, dirty, stained, sullied, unclean, uncleanly

Antonyms: clean, cleanly, immaculate, spick-and-span (or spic-and-span), spotless, stainless, ultraclean, unsoiled, unstained, unsullied

Synonym Discussion of SORDID

mean, ignoble, abject, sordid mean being below the normal standards of human decency and dignity. mean suggests small-mindedness, ill temper, or cupidity <mean and petty satire>. ignoble suggests a loss or lack of some essential high quality of mind or spirit <an ignoble scramble after material possessions>. abject may imply degradation, debasement, or servility <abject poverty>. sordid is stronger than all of these in stressing physical or spiritual degradation and abjectness <a sordid story of murder and revenge>.