Advertisement - Continue reading below

Definition of "slovenly" [slov•en•ly]

  • Untidy, as in dress or appearance. (adjective)
  • Marked by negligence; slipshod. See Synonyms at sloppy. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "slovenly" in a sentence
  • "Nothing is more adverse to legal study than what may be called the slovenly habit of mind which is sometimes found even in intelligent people — the habit of mind which knows nothing correctly, which remembers nothing distinctly, which cannot be depended on to state a fact truly, or to carry a point from one case to another."
  • "Even in the greatest stress of emotion the power of self-control must never be lost; you must never allow yourself to sing in a slovenly, that is, in a heedless, way, or to exceed your powers, or even to reach their extreme limit."
  • "A crack for a penknife, the waste of 'six-and-thirty shillings,' 'the loss of a day or a tide,' in each of these he saw and was revolted by the finger of the sloven; and to spirits intense as his, and immersed in vital undertakings, the slovenly is the dishonest, and wasted time is instantly translated into lives endangered."