crappy

English

Etymology

From crap +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹæpi/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -æpi
• Homophone: crappie

Adjective

crappy (comparative crappier, superlative crappiest)

1. (chiefly Canada, US, colloquial, mildly vulgar) Of very poor quality; unpleasant; distasteful.

   That is such a crappy car.

   The referee just made a really crappy call.

   The food there used to be good but now it's crappy.

   • 2015, Zachary Petit, The Essential Guide to Freelance Writing‎^[1], Penguin, →ISBN:

     Think of the content mill as a modern-day literary sweatshop—writers hunkering down at hot keyboards, plowing away at 3,000 word articles for, literally, pennies. Content mills were born because someone figured out that by targeting popular search result terms, they could commission an army of crappy posts catering to these terms and dominate Google's results.

   • 2022 July 29, Jennifer Miller, “Investing in Real Estate as Self-Care”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     She took a leap in 2019 and bought an investment property, a duplex in Missoula, Mont., intending to live in one unit and rent the other. “It was the crappiest house on the block,” she said.

   • 2024 May 2, Elizabeth Paton, “Will Shoppers Ever Care About the Destruction of the Planet?”, in The New York Times‎^[3]:

     “Many scientists and historians think we’re entering into a new epoch — one where things are simply … well, crappier,” declares the opening voice-over in a thick northern English accent (regularly used in Britain to indicate no-nonsense, tongue-in-cheek pragmatism).

2. (chiefly Canada, US, colloquial, mildly vulgar, especially with "feel") Bad, sick, or depressed.

   I'm feeling really crappy - I think I need some fresh air.

3. (chiefly Canada, US, colloquial, mildly vulgar) Covered in crap (faeces/feces).

   Put the crappy diapers in the brown pail and the wet ones in the yellow pail.

Alternative forms

• crap (chiefly UK)

Synonyms

• (covered in crap): shitty, poopy
• (of very poor quality): shitty, lousy, tatty; see also Thesaurus:low-quality

Derived terms

• crappily
• crappiness
• craptop

 

Collocations

with nouns

• crappy job
• crappy day
• crappy weather
• crappy thing
• crappy food
• crappy movie
• crappy apartment
• crappy life
• crappy service
• crappy mood
• crappy hotel
• crappy car
• crappy phone
• crappy town
• crappy product
• crappy attitude
• crappy software
• crappy household goods

Translations

of poor quality

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 差 (caa¹)

  Mandarin: 爛／烂 (zh) (làn)

• Esperanto: aĉa (eo)
• Finnish: paska (fi) (vulgar); surkea (fi)
• French: merdique (fr), à chier (fr), pourrave (fr)
• German: beschissen (de), (euphemism) bescheiden (de)
• Greek: του κώλου (tou kólou), για πέταμα (gia pétama)
• Macedonian: ска́пан (skápan), га́ден (gáden), о́двратен (ódvraten)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ræva (no)

• Polish: badziewny
• Russian: дерьмо́вый (ru) (derʹmóvyj), сра́ный (ru) (srányj), говённый (ru) (govjónnyj)
• Swedish: kass (sv), skitdålig (sv), urusel (sv), värdelös (sv)

bad, sick, or depressed

• Finnish: paska (fi) (vulgar); surkea (fi), kurja (fi)
• German: beschissen (de), mies (de), scheiße (de) (vulgar)
• Macedonian: по́сран (pósran)

covered in, containing feces

• Danish: belortet
• Dutch: bekakt (nl)
• Finnish: paskainen (fi), paskassa (vulgar); ulosteessa
• German: verkackt (de), beschmutzt (de) (euphemistic)
• Greek: χεσμένος (el) (chesménos)