sor·did

(sôr′dĭd)

adj.

1. Morally degraded: "The sordid details of his orgies stank under his very nostrils" (James Joyce). See Synonyms at base².

a. Dirty or filthy: sordid clothing.

b. Squalid or wretched: a sordid tenement.

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

sor′did·ly adv.

sor′did·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

sordid

(ˈsɔːdɪd)

adj

1. dirty, foul, or squalid

2. degraded; vile; base: a sordid affair.

3. selfish and grasping: sordid avarice.

[C16: from Latin sordidus, from sordēre to be dirty]

ˈsordidly adv

ˈsordidness n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

sor•did

(ˈsɔr dɪd)

adj.

1. morally ignoble or base; vile.

2. meanly selfish or mercenary.

3. filthy; squalid.

[1590–1600; < Latin sordidus=sord(ēs) dirt + -idus -id⁴]

sor′did•ly, adv.

sor′did•ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.	1.	sordid - morally degraded; "a seedy district"; "the seamy side of life"; "sleazy characters hanging around casinos"; "sleazy storefronts with...dirt on the walls"- Seattle Weekly; "the sordid details of his orgies stank under his very nostrils"- James Joyce; "the squalid atmosphere of intrigue and betrayal" squalid, seamy, sleazy, seedy disreputable - lacking respectability in character or behavior or appearance
	2.	sordid - unethical or dishonest; "dirty police officers"; "a sordid political campaign" dirty corrupt - lacking in integrity; "humanity they knew to be corrupt...from the day of Adam's creation"; "a corrupt and incompetent city government"
	3.	sordid - foul and run-down and repulsive; "a flyblown bar on the edge of town"; "a squalid overcrowded apartment in the poorest part of town"; "squalid living conditions"; "sordid shantytowns" flyblown, squalid dirty, soiled, unclean - soiled or likely to soil with dirt or grime; "dirty unswept sidewalks"; "a child in dirty overalls"; "dirty slums"; "piles of dirty dishes"; "put his dirty feet on the clean sheet"; "wore an unclean shirt"; "mining is a dirty job"; "Cinderella did the dirty work while her sisters preened themselves"
	4.	sordid - meanly avaricious and mercenary; "sordid avarice"; "sordid material interests" acquisitive - eager to acquire and possess things especially material possessions or ideas; "an acquisitive mind"; "an acquisitive society in which the craving for material things seems never satisfied"

sordid

adjective

1. base, degraded, shameful, low, vicious, shabby, vile, degenerate, despicable, disreputable, debauched He put his head in his hands as his sordid life was exposed.
base pure, decent, noble, upright, honourable, blameless

2. dirty, seedy, sleazy, squalid, mean, foul, filthy, unclean, wretched, seamy, slovenly, skanky (slang), slummy, scungy (Austral. & N.Z.) the attic windows of their sordid little rooms
dirty clean, spotless, fresh, pure, squeaky-clean, unblemished, unsullied, undefiled

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

sordid

adjective

Having or proceeding from low moral standards:

base, ignoble, low, low-down, mean, squalid, vile.

Translations

خَسيس، دنيءقَذِر

nečestnýnechutnýšpinavý

beskidtussel

schmutzig

sórdido

sordide abject avide lâche saleté

anyagiashitványkapzsiközönségespiszkos

óhreinn, niîurníddurósiîlegur, óòverralegur

sordido

netīrsnožēlojamszemisks

грязный

aşağılık kirli pis rezil

下贱的肮脏的

sordid

[ˈsɔːdɪd] ADJ [place, room etc] → miserable, sórdido; [deal, motive etc] → mezquino
it's a pretty sordid business → es un asunto de lo más desagradable

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

sordid

[ˈsɔː^rdɪd] adj

[behaviour, motive, life, affair, details] → sordide

[room, street, conditions] → sordide

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

sordid

adj → eklig; place, room also → verkommen, heruntergekommen; motive → schmutzig, niedrig, gemein; conditions, life, story → elend, erbärmlich; crime → gemein; affair → schmutzig; he considers it sordid to discuss money → er hält es für unfein, über Geld zu sprechen; spare me the sordid details → erspar mir die schmutzigen Einzelheiten

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

sordid

[ˈsɔːdɪd] adj (place, room) → sordido/a; (deal, motive) → meschino/a, sordido/a

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

sordid

(ˈsoːdid) adjective

1. (of a place etc) dirty, mean and poor. a very sordid neighbourhood.

2. (of a person's behaviour etc) showing low standards or ideals etc; not very pleasant or admirable. The whole affair was rather sordid.

ˈsordidly adverb

ˈsordidness noun

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Philip was carried away by the sordid intensity of it.

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It is a sordid life, you say, this of the Tullivers and Dodsons, irradiated by no sublime principles, no romantic visions, no active, self-renouncing faith; moved by none of those wild, uncontrollable passions which create the dark shadows of misery and crime; without that primitive, rough simplicity of wants, that hard, submissive, ill-paid toil, that childlike spelling-out of what nature has written, which gives its poetry to peasant life.

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She would permanently engage herself to nobody -- least of all to a man who had taken sordid advantage of her position and mine.

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That he had once, by way of experiment, privately removed a heap of these stones from the place where one of his YAHOOS had buried it; whereupon the sordid animal, missing his treasure, by his loud lamenting brought the whole herd to the place, there miserably howled, then fell to biting and tearing the rest, began to pine away, would neither eat, nor sleep, nor work, till he ordered a servant privately to convey the stones into the same hole, and hide them as before; which, when his YAHOO had found, he presently recovered his spirits and good humour, but took good care to remove them to a better hiding place, and has ever since been a very serviceable brute."

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The gallant Perseus, a son of Jupiter, was the first whaleman; and to the eternal honor of our calling be it said, that the first whale attacked by our brotherhood was not killed with any sordid intent.

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Only looking up at the sky did Pierre cease to feel how sordid and humiliating were all mundane things compared with the heights to which his soul had just been raised.

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I will pay the subscription out of my own purse." Having asserted herself in those noble terms, she spoilt the effect of her own outburst of generosity by dropping to the sordid view of the subject in her next sentence.

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The Tennessee Fraysers were a practical folk--not practical in the popular sense of devotion to sordid pursuits, but having a robust contempt for any qualities unfitting a man for the wholesome vocation of politics.

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Young, happy, fondly attached to each other, raised securely above all the sordid cares of life, what a golden future was theirs!

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So--with many a cold, deep heart-quake at the idea of at last coming into sordid contact with the world, from which she had so long kept aloof, while every added day of seclusion had rolled another stone against the cavern door of her hermitage--the poor thing bethought herself of the ancient shop-window, the rusty scales, and dusty till.

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"Of course it's all valueless, just so much dull and sordid plodding; but it is no more dull and sordid than keeping books at sixty dollars a month, adding up endless columns of meaningless figures until one dies.

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It was a miserable, sordid, and pitiful beginning to life.

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