Squalid
adjective
Dirty and unpleasant, often due to poverty or neglect.
He lived in a squalid little shack at the edge of the town.
Often appears as...
- squalid conditions
- squalid living
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Involved in dishonest or immoral activities.
The squalid world of organized crime.
Often appears as...
- squalid affair
- squalid business
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Dirty and unpleasant, often due to poverty or neglect.
He lived in a squalid little shack at the edge of the town.
Often appears as...
- squalid conditions
- squalid living
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Involved in dishonest or immoral activities.
The squalid world of organized crime.
Often appears as...
- squalid affair
- squalid business
Usage tips
Disapproving
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Physical Neglect
Indicates extreme lack of cleanliness or maintenance, often because of neglect.
The squalid room reeked of unwashed clothes.
Pro Tip 2/3Poverty Indicator
Commonly used to describe environments affected by extreme poverty.
Relief workers arrived to improve the squalid conditions in the slums.
Pro Tip 3/3Negative Emotion
Conveys a strong feeling of disgust or disapproval when describing a place.
She refused to set foot in the squalid alleyway filled with garbage.
Pro Tip 1/3Physical Neglect
Indicates extreme lack of cleanliness or maintenance, often because of neglect.
The squalid room reeked of unwashed clothes.
Pro Tip 2/3Poverty Indicator
Commonly used to describe environments affected by extreme poverty.
Relief workers arrived to improve the squalid conditions in the slums.
Pro Tip 3/3Negative Emotion
Conveys a strong feeling of disgust or disapproval when describing a place.
She refused to set foot in the squalid alleyway filled with garbage.
Pro Tip 1/3Physical Neglect
Indicates extreme lack of cleanliness or maintenance, often because of neglect.
The squalid room reeked of unwashed clothes.
Pro Tip 2/3Poverty Indicator
Commonly used to describe environments affected by extreme poverty.
Relief workers arrived to improve the squalid conditions in the slums.
Pro Tip 3/3Negative Emotion
Conveys a strong feeling of disgust or disapproval when describing a place.
She refused to set foot in the squalid alleyway filled with garbage.
Compare with
dingydirtyfilthyfoulgrubbymuddyrun downshabby
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Video examples
Why should you read...
continue to resonate. Today, the adjective Dickensian often implies squalid working or living conditions. But to describe a novel as Dickensian is typically high praise, as it suggests a story in which true adventure and discovery occur in the most unexpected places.
Video examples
Healthy Attraction PIPE...
breeding in squalid conditions in grime and fouled water diseases weaken the body's immune system and cause sickness advertising resistance to disease is important to make selection some
Video examples
Why should you read...
continue to resonate. Today, the adjective Dickensian often implies squalid working or living conditions. But to describe a novel as Dickensian is typically high praise, as it suggests a story in which true adventure and discovery occur in the most unexpected places.
Video examples
Healthy Attraction PIPE...
breeding in squalid conditions in grime and fouled water diseases weaken the body's immune system and cause sickness advertising resistance to disease is important to make selection some
Example 1 of 2
Quote examples
Max Lucado
American Clergyman
We are Jesus Christ's; we belong to him. But even more, we are increasingly him. He moves in and commandeers our hands and feet, requisitions our minds and tongues. We sense his rearranging: debris into the divine, pig's ear into silk purse. He repurposes bad decisions and squalid choices. Little by little, a new image emerges.
Quote examples
Jesse Andrews
American Novelist
I started playing music around 13 or 14, played jazz in high school, and played other stuff in college. After college, I tried to make it as a musician. I lived in a big squalid house full of dudes outside of Boston. We were all musicians. We built this studio in the basement and played there all hours of the day.
Quote examples
Terry Eagleton
English Critic
Universities are no longer educational in any sense of the word that Rousseau would have recognised. Instead, they have become unabashed instruments of capital. Confronted with this squalid betrayal, one imagines he would have felt sick and oppressed.
Quote examples
Rebecca Harding Davis
American Author
The histories which we have of the great tragedy give no idea of the general wretchedness, the squalid misery, which entered into every individual life in the region given up to the war. Where the armies camped the destruction was absolute.
Quote examples
Robert Kennedy
American Politician
One can find a squalid America as easily as a scenic America; a bitter, hopeless America as easily as the confident America of polyethylene wrapping, new cars, and camping trips in the summer.
Quote examples
Richard Rogers
British Architect
If you live in a squalid environment, then of course you are going to want to get out of it, you are probably going to want to get into the country, because that's what it does.
Quote examples
Harold Pinter
English Dramatist
I found the offer of a knighthood something that I couldn't possibly accept. I found it to be somehow squalid, a knighthood. There's a relationship to government about knights.
Quote examples
Peter Bergen
American Journalist
And in the end, bin Laden died in a squalid suburban compound surrounded by his wives and children and far from the front lines of his holy war.
Quote examples
Tom Baker
Actor
Most drama in our lives is really rather squalid.
Quote examples
Max Lucado
American Clergyman
We are Jesus Christ's; we belong to him. But even more, we are increasingly him. He moves in and commandeers our hands and feet, requisitions our minds and tongues. We sense his rearranging: debris into the divine, pig's ear into silk purse. He repurposes bad decisions and squalid choices. Little by little, a new image emerges.
Quote examples
Jesse Andrews
American Novelist
I started playing music around 13 or 14, played jazz in high school, and played other stuff in college. After college, I tried to make it as a musician. I lived in a big squalid house full of dudes outside of Boston. We were all musicians. We built this studio in the basement and played there all hours of the day.
Quote examples
Terry Eagleton
English Critic
Universities are no longer educational in any sense of the word that Rousseau would have recognised. Instead, they have become unabashed instruments of capital. Confronted with this squalid betrayal, one imagines he would have felt sick and oppressed.
Quote examples
Rebecca Harding Davis
American Author
The histories which we have of the great tragedy give no idea of the general wretchedness, the squalid misery, which entered into every individual life in the region given up to the war. Where the armies camped the destruction was absolute.
Quote examples
Robert Kennedy
American Politician
One can find a squalid America as easily as a scenic America; a bitter, hopeless America as easily as the confident America of polyethylene wrapping, new cars, and camping trips in the summer.
Quote examples
Richard Rogers
British Architect
If you live in a squalid environment, then of course you are going to want to get out of it, you are probably going to want to get into the country, because that's what it does.
Quote examples
Harold Pinter
English Dramatist
I found the offer of a knighthood something that I couldn't possibly accept. I found it to be somehow squalid, a knighthood. There's a relationship to government about knights.
Quote examples
Peter Bergen
American Journalist
And in the end, bin Laden died in a squalid suburban compound surrounded by his wives and children and far from the front lines of his holy war.
Quote examples
Tom Baker
Actor
Most drama in our lives is really rather squalid.
Example 1 of 9
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