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, 19 August, 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.

2. (informal, countable) A person of low moral standards.
   • 1999, E. Brewer, Picking Up the Marbles, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, p. 162.

     She knew that sleaze Hakido would do something to stick the knife in and twist it to the hilt.

3. (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, p. 64.

     Mother, he's such a sleaze! The way he looked at you!

4. (informal, uncountable) sleazy material

   a tabloid newspaper full of sleaze

Related terms

• sleazebag
• sleazemonger
• sleaze-merchant
• sleazy

Translations

low moral standards

• Catalan: vil (ca)
• Greek: αίσχη n or pl (aíschi)
• Irish: broghaisireacht f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: malcostume m
• Polish: zgnilizna (pl) f, zepsucie (pl) n, niemoralność (pl) f
• Russian: амора́льность (ru) f (amorálʹnostʹ)

a person with low moral standards

• Catalan: aprofitat (ca) m
• Italian: scostumato (it) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: kanalia (pl) f, gnida (pl) f
• 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

• (deprecated template usage) Spanish: corrupción f, las corruptelas, los chanchullos; sordidez f, cutrez f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Verb

1. To act or progress in a sleazy manner.

   He sleazed his way over to the women at the bar.

2. To slander. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Anagrams

• leazes