shoddy

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Made of or containing inferior material.
2. adj. Of poor quality or craft.
3. adj. Rundown; shabby.
4. adj. Dishonest or reprehensible: shoddy business practices.
5. adj. Conspicuously and cheaply imitative.
6. n. Woolen yarn made from scraps or used clothing, with some new wool added.
7. n. Cloth made from or containing such yarn.
8. n. Something of inferior quality; a cheap imitation.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A woolen material felted together, composed of old woolen cloth torn into shreds, the rejected threads from the weaving of finer cloths, and the like. Com-pare mungo.
2. n. The inferior cloth made from this substance; hence, any unsubstantial and almost worthless goods. The large amount of shoddy in the clothing furnished by contractors for the Union soldiers in the earlier part of the American civil war gave the word a sudden prominence. The wealth obtained by these contractors and the resulting ambition of some of them for social prominence caused shoddy (especially as an adjective) to be applied to those who on account of lately acquired wealth aspire to a social position higher than that to which their birth or breeding entitles them.
3. n. A person or thing combining assumption of superior excellence with actual inferiority; pretense; sham; vulgar assumption.
4. Made of shoddy: as, shoddy cloth. Hence Of a trashy or inferior character: as, shoddy literature.
5. Pretending to an excellence not possessed; pretentious; sham; counterfeit; ambitious for prominence or influence not deserved by character or breeding, but aspired to on account of newly acquired wealth: as, a shoddy aristocracy. See I., 2.
6. To convert into shoddy.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Being of poor quality or construction
2. n. A low-grade cloth made from by-products of wool processing, or from recycled wool.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A fibrous material obtained by “deviling,” or tearing into fibers, refuse woolen goods, old stockings, rags, druggets, etc. See mungo.
2. n. Fluffy, fibrous waste from wool carding, worsted spinning, or weaving of woolens.
3. n. A fabric of inferior quality made of, or containing a large amount of, shoddy.
4. adj. Made wholly or in part of shoddy; containing shoddy; ; hence, colloquially, not genuine; sham; pretentious.
5. adj. of poor quality or inferior workmanship.
6. adj. visibly worn or damaged from use; shabby.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. designed to deceive or mislead either deliberately or inadvertently
2. n. reclaimed wool fiber
3. adj. of inferior workmanship and materials
4. adj. cheap and shoddy