Schlubby

//ˈʃlʌbi// adj, slang

adj, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Clumsy, oafish, or socially awkward; unattractive or unkempt. Jewish, New-York-City, informal, slang

    "It's a wasted review copy, sending “schlubby” nonfiction to Eliot Fremont-Smith at New York magazine or a book by William Buckley to Rolling Stone […]"

Example

More examples

"It's a wasted review copy, sending “schlubby” nonfiction to Eliot Fremont-Smith at New York magazine or a book by William Buckley to Rolling Stone […]"

Etymology

From schlub + -y; schlub is derived from Yiddish זשלאָב (zhlob), perhaps from Polish żłób (“manger, trough; furrow, large groove in the soil”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.