Squalid

//ˈskwɒlɪd// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any member of the family Squalidae of dogfish sharks.

    "Numerous diet studies on squalids have shown that members of this family tend to feed mainly on teleosts and cephalopods[…]"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Extremely dirty and unpleasant.

    "[...] Mythologists describe Pan the son of Mercury (who was the God of Speech) with the upper part like a man, and the lower like a beast, to signifie that Truth is fair and comely, but a Lye squalid and Deformed."

  2. 2
    Showing a contemptible lack of moral standards.

    "A squalid attempt to buy votes."

Adjective
  1. 1
    foul and run-down and repulsive wordnet
  2. 2
    morally degraded wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
dirtysleazyabjectabominablearrantatrocious

Example

More examples

"The refugees were living in a narrow, squalid backstreet."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin squalidus, from squalere (“to be rough or dirty”).

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