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Definition
dirty and unkempt- It was a kind of desperate, slovenly clatter, suddenly muted on the rug.Robert Penn Warren -- All the King's Men
- It bothers me to be slovenly and asymmetrical.Mark Helprin -- A Soldier of the Great War
- You—all of you—are selfish and slovenly!Becca Fitzpatrick -- Hush, Hush
- I suspected that Moody was either deliberately discouraging them or that his brooding, slovenly presence scared them off.Betty Mahmoody -- Not Without My Daughter
- She fluttered toward the tailor shop, dashed into its slovenly heat with the comic fastidiousness of a humming bird dipping into a dry tiger-lily.Sinclair Lewis -- Main Street
- Her heavy breasts, sagging visibly against her blouse, stained by fruit juice and chocolate, flopped slovenly from side to side.Henry Roth -- Call It Sleep
- Heavy, slovenly, she moved to awaken Jett with a kick of foot no less gentle than her mien.Zane Grey -- The Thundering Herd
- She looked poor white, shiftless, slovenly, trifling.Margaret Mitchell -- Gone with the Wind
- On the way back to the boat they passed three young Indians, loud spoken, ill-kempt and slovenly, and he felt the boys stiffen with enmity.Margaret Craven -- I Heard the Owl Call My Name
- Upon it, and leaning against a hitching-rail, were men of varying ages, most of them slovenly in old jeans and slouched sombreros.Zane Grey -- The Lone Star Ranger
- Cousin Anna, no less slovenly than in other days, had pancakes and coffee going and a big spread on the table.Saul Bellow -- The Adventures of Augie March
- A Model T Ford sedan and a two-wheel trailer were parked beside the shack, and about the camp there hung a slovenly despair.John Steinbeck -- The Grapes of Wrath
- It isn't the thing: it's slovenly, ever so slovenly.George Bernard Shaw -- Mrs. Warren's Profession
- I had let myself get too slovenly.Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- Notes from the Underground
- Do you make sugar in this slovenly way?James Fenimore Cooper -- The Pioneers
- But no, it was a bunch of woman's hair that had been indolently tossed into a corner when some slovenly female toilet was made in this room.Willa Cather -- Death Comes for the Archbishop
- On the bright side, I had quickly reverted to my premarriage (read: slovenly) lifestyle.John Grogan -- Marley & Me
- He fired the slovenly devils who caused all the trouble.Laurie Halse Anderson -- Fever, 1793
- The master, being wroth with what he termed such slovenly and doltish work, did promise that he would soundly whip me for it—and—Mark Twain -- The Prince and The Pauper
- She looked offensively unkempt, with studied slovenliness as careful as grooming—and for the same purpose.Ayn Rand -- The Fountainhead
(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)
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