DISREPUTABLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does disreputable mean? 

• DISREPUTABLE (adjective)
  The adjective DISREPUTABLE has 1 sense:

1. lacking respectability in character or behavior or appearance

  Familiarity information: DISREPUTABLE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISREPUTABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking respectability in character or behavior or appearance

Similar:

discreditable (tending to bring discredit or disrepute; blameworthy)

damaged; discredited (being unjustly brought into disrepute)

ill-famed; infamous; notorious (known widely and usually unfavorably)

louche (disreputable and dissolute, somewhat agreeably)

seamy; seedy; sleazy; sordid; squalid (morally degraded)

Also:

dishonorable; dishonourable (lacking honor or integrity; deserving dishonor)

unrespectable (unworthy of respect)

Attribute:

reputation; repute (the state of being held in high esteem and honor)

Antonym:

reputable (having a good reputation)

Derivation:

disreputability; disreputableness (dishonorableness by virtue of lacking respectability or a good reputation)

 Context examples 

So White Fang hung around the landing with the disreputable gang of Indian dogs, waiting for steamers.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It was close upon four before the door opened, and a drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Is that the royal palace?” cried the bear; “it is a wretched palace, and you are not King’s children, you are disreputable children!”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I crouched down among the bushes on the other side, and crawled from one to the other—witness the disreputable state of my trouser knees—until I had reached the clump of rhododendrons just opposite to your bedroom window.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Much of his past was unearthed, indeed, and all disreputable: tales came out of the man’s cruelty, at once so callous and violent; of his vile life, of his strange associates, of the hatred that seemed to have surrounded his career; but of his present whereabouts, not a whisper.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

For similar reasons I made no allusion to the skirmishing plates upon the floor; or to the disreputable appearance of the castors, which were all at sixes and sevens, and looked drunk; or to the further blockade of Traddles by wandering vegetable dishes and jugs.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Especially did they enjoy the havoc worked amongst the newcomers' dogs by White Fang and his disreputable gang.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly respectable self.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several places.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)