sleaze

English edit

Etymology edit

Back-formation from sleazy, originally used to describe the thinness and low quality of cloth.

Pronunciation edit

IPA^(key): /sliːz/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Rhymes: -iːz

Noun edit

sleaze (countable and uncountable, plural sleazes)

(uncountable) Low moral standards.
- 2004 August 19, London Review of Books:
  ministerial sleaze and mendacity
- 1988 January 11, The New Yorker:
  The level of sleaze in this city seems to have been rising rapidly in recent years.
(informal, countable) A person of low moral standards.
- 1999, E. Brewer, Picking Up the Marbles, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 162:
  She knew that sleaze Hakido would do something to stick the knife in and twist it to the hilt.
(informal, countable) A man who is sexually aggressive or forward with women to the point of causing disgust.
- 1989, Weekly World News, "My hubby robbed the cradle and left me with the baby", 7 November, p. 42.
  I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that sleaze slept with your boss and I wouldn't take it lying down.
- 1996, S. Hoskinson Frommer, Buried in Quilts, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 64:
  Mother, he's such a sleaze! The way he looked at you!
(informal, uncountable) sleazy material
a tabloid newspaper full of sleaze

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

low moral standards

Catalan: vil (ca)
Czech: špína (cs) f, hnus (cs) m
Dutch: laag allooi n
Galician: vileza f
German: Verderbtheit (de) f
Greek: αίσχη n or pl (aíschi)
Hebrew: זִמָּה (he) f (zimmá)
Irish: broghaisireacht f
Italian: malcostume m
Polish: zgnilizna (pl) f, zepsucie (pl) n, niemoralność (pl) f
Portuguese: falta de princípios, corrupção (pt)
Russian: амора́льность (ru) f (amorálʹnostʹ)

a person with low moral standards

Catalan: aprofitat (ca) m
Czech: špína (cs)
Galician: canalla m, corrupto m, corrupta f
Italian: scostumato (it) m
Polish: kanalia (pl) f, gnida (pl) f
Portuguese: canalha (pt), corrupto (pt)
Russian: дешёвка (ru) f (dešóvka), ничто́жество (ru) n (ničtóžestvo)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Spanish: ^{(please verify)} corrupción (es) f, ^{(please verify)} las corruptelas, ^{(please verify)} los chanchullos, ^{(please verify)} sordidez (es) f, ^{(please verify)} cutrez (es) f

Verb edit

sleaze (third-person singular simple present sleazes, present participle sleazing, simple past and past participle sleazed)

To act or progress in a sleazy manner.
He sleazed his way over to the women at the bar.
To slander. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Anagrams edit

leazes