SLATTERNLY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does slatternly mean? 

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

1. characteristic of or befitting a slut or slattern; used especially of women

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• SLATTERNLY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Characteristic of or befitting a slut or slattern; used especially of women

Synonyms:

blowsy; blowzy; slatternly; sluttish

Similar:

untidy (not neat and tidy)

Derivation:

slattern (a dirty untidy woman)

slattern (a prostitute who attracts customers by walking the streets)

slatternliness (in the manner of a slattern)

 Context examples 

She was a large, stout woman, always dressed slatternly and always tired from the burdens of her flesh, her work, and her husband.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"Hardened girl!" exclaimed Miss Scatcherd; "nothing can correct you of your slatternly habits: carry the rod away."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The dismal quarter of Soho seen under these changing glimpses, with its muddy ways, and slatternly passengers, and its lamps, which had never been extinguished or had been kindled afresh to combat this mournful reinvasion of darkness, seemed, in the lawyer’s eyes, like a district of some city in a nightmare.

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

As to her being a person of refinement and well dressed, they are, as you perceive, handsomely mounted in solid gold, and it is inconceivable that anyone who wore such glasses could be slatternly in other respects.

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

I was expressing my satisfaction, when Mrs. Micawber came in; a little more slatternly than she used to be, or so she seemed now, to my unaccustomed eyes, but still with some preparation of herself for company, and with a pair of brown gloves on.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It often grieved her to the heart to think of the contrast between them; to think that where nature had made so little difference, circumstances should have made so much, and that her mother, as handsome as Lady Bertram, and some years her junior, should have an appearance so much more worn and faded, so comfortless, so slatternly, so shabby.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Martin went into the kitchen with a sinking heart, the image of her red face and slatternly form eating its way like acid into his brain.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Then learn from me, not to judge by appearances: I am, as Miss Scatcherd said, slatternly; I seldom put, and never keep, things, in order; I am careless; I forget rules; I read when I should learn my lessons; I have no method; and sometimes I say, like you, I cannot bear to be subjected to systematic arrangements.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He started to leave the room, tripping over a loose seam in the slatternly carpet.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

All the life about him—the odors of stale vegetables and soapsuds, the slatternly form of his sister, and the jeering face of Mr. Higginbotham—was a dream.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)