sloven
Americannoun
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a person who is habitually negligent of neatness or cleanliness in dress, appearance, etc.
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a person who works, acts, speaks, etc., in a negligent, slipshod manner.
noun
Etymology
Origin of sloven
1400–50; late Middle English sloveyn, perhaps < Middle Dutch slof careless ( Dutch slof careless, sloven to toil) + -inne feminine noun suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The agency’s report on her said she “had a very poor personal appearance, her clothes were sloven and dirty, and her hair was uncombed and matty, and she had a very offensive body odor.”
From Washington Times • Nov. 25, 2018
Wouk described his hero as a cigar-smoking Kentucky coal trucker, huge, thick-featured and rustic, "a hulking sloven of twenty-six who had written an ugly bellowing dinosaur of a novel."
From Time Magazine Archive
Leaving traces of her sloven unhousebroken self all over the county.
From "Jazz" by Toni Morrison
He believed in discipline and hard work, and calling to mind the strict habits of his school days, he made the sloven and surly bachelors walk-a-chalk.
From The Pocahontas-John Smith Story by Edmunds, Pocahontas Wight
She carried a sloven list that brought her port chains under, and she shouldered at her anchor like a drunken man at a post.
From Where the Pavement Ends by Russell, John
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
