Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Morally degraded: synonym: base.
  • adjective Dirty or filthy.
  • adjective Squalid or wretched.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Dirty; filthy; squalid; foul.
  • In bot, and zoology, of a dull or dirty hue; impure; muddy: noting a color when it appears as if clouded by admixture with another, or parts so colored: as, sordid blue, etc.
  • Morally foul; gross; base; vile; ignoble; selfish; miserly.
  • Low; menial; groveling.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Filthy; foul; dirty.
  • adjective Vile; base; gross; mean.
  • adjective Meanly avaricious; covetous; niggardly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Dirty or squalid.
  • adjective Morally degrading.
  • adjective Grasping.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective morally degraded
  • adjective unethical or dishonest
  • adjective foul and run-down and repulsive
  • adjective meanly avaricious and mercenary

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English sordide, festering, purulent, from Latin sordidus, dirty, from sordēre, to be dirty.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin sordidus, from sordēre ("be dirty").

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Examples

  • DALLAS - Texas prosecutors on Thursday abruptly ended a three-year criminal probe into what they called a sordid small-town swinger's club where children as young as 5 were forced into performing sex.

    Breaking News: CBS News 2011

  • As a result of the grand jury's report on what it called "sordid, shocking acts," Monsignor William Lynn, former secretary of the clergy in the Archdiocese, faces charges of child endangerment.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • The majority of the world's people live in sordid conditions, deprived of basic necessities.

    Democracy in India 1973

  • Three years passed in sordid struggle and disappointment.

    The Promised Land 1912

  • It’s all very fine in its way, but somehow it’s what I call sordid and the port is terrible.

    Cargo of Eagles Allingham, Margery, 1904-1966. n 50021032-1 1968

  • It’s all very fine in its way, but somehow it’s what I call sordid and the port is terrible.

    Cargo of Eagles Allingham, Margery, 1904-1966. n 50021032-1 1968

  • Around this time, notice, he didn't give specific dates as he's, you know, recalling his sordid history he didn't give specific dates.

    CNN Transcript Oct 28, 2009 2009

  • Russian literature, faced with the realities of modern life, a spirit titanic and in clash with its material, and produced in the mastery of this every-day material, commonly called sordid, a phantasmagoria intense with beauty.

    Taras Bulba 2003

  • The nomad and romantic in him, troubled and restless with Ukrainian myth, legend, and song, impressed upon Russian literature, faced with the realities of modern life, a spirit titanic and in clash with its material, and produced in the mastery of this every-day material, commonly called sordid, a phantasmagoria intense with beauty.

    Taras Bulba and Other Tales 1952

  • The nomad and romantic in him, troubled and restless with Ukrainian myth, legend, and song, impressed upon Russian literature, faced with the realities of modern life, a spirit titanic and in clash with its material, and produced in the mastery of this every-day material, commonly called sordid, a phantasmagoria intense with beauty.

    Taras Bulba and Other Tales Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol 1830

Comments

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  • "Unless some formal inquiry is convened to look into a sordid history that reached its depths in the Bush era, and so begins to break this cycle of deceit, exposé, and paralysis followed by more of the same, we're likely, a few years hence, to find ourselves right back where we are now."

    - Alfred W. McCoy, Confronting the CIA's Mind Maze, tomdispatch.com, 7 June 2009.

    June 8, 2009

  • Johnathan Kellerman-Flesh and Blood: " I suppose. And Lauren did say she liked you... All right, its nothing sordid, anyway"

    November 12, 2010