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)

(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.
(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.
(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!
(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

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

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, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

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

Verb

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

leazes