sleaze

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -iːz

Noun

sleaze (countable and uncountable; plural sleazes)

1. (uncountable) low moral standards
   • 2004, London Review of Books, 19 Aug 2004:

     ministerial sleaze and mendacity

   • 1988, The New Yorker, 11 Jan 1988:

     The level of sleaze in this city seems to have been rising rapidly in recent years.

2. (countable) a person with low moral standards
3. (countable) (the commonest instance of the above) a man who is sexually aggressive or forward with women to the point of disgust
4. sleazy material

   a tabloid newspaper full of sleaze

Related terms

• sleazebag
• sleazemonger
• sleaze-merchant
• sleazy

Translations

low moral standards

• Catalan: vil (ca)
• Irish: broghaisireacht (ga) f

• Russian: аморальность (ru) (amorálʹnostʹ) f 

a person with low moral standards

• Catalan: aprofitat (ca) m

• Russian: дешёвка (ru) (dešóvka) f , ничтожество (ru) (ničtóžestvo) n 

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Spanish: corrupción f, las corruptelas, los chanchullos; sordidez f, cutrez f