What's the difference between shabby and tacky?

Shabby


Definition:

  • (n.) Torn or worn to rage; poor; mean; ragged.
  • (n.) Clothed with ragged, much worn, or soiled garments.
  • (n.) Mean; paltry; despicable; as, shabby treatment.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) While the opening tranche of "tales" derive from the work of forgotten contemporary humorists, the pieces of London reportage that he began to contribute to the Morning Chronicle in autumn 1834 ("Gin Shops", "Shabby-Genteel People", "The Pawnbroker's Shop") are like nothing else in pre-Victorian journalism: bantering and hard-headed by turns, hectic and profuse, falling over themselves to convey every last detail of the metropolitan front-line from which Dickens sent back his dispatches.
  • (2) Given what is now known about the way the case was made for launching an arguably illegal war – this country's biggest foreign policy debacle since Suez – Heywood's refusal to release the conversations smacks of a shabby cover-up at worst, or foot-dragging in a moderately more charitable interpretation.
  • (3) It is not something you can deal with tactically and this is a tactic, this is a stunt, it is simply designed to distract the house and the public and the people from the shabby tactics of the Labor party.
  • (4) Alistair Darling 's self-serving memoir only reminds us of his own shabby role when he, more than any other, had the power to do it.
  • (5) Photographs from inside the flat showed a cramped and shabby home whose contents had been turned over by investigators.
  • (6) To be fair, that was probably a much better use of Miliband's time, given Labour's shabby showing in the opinion polls.
  • (7) "I only had two hours sleep after we finished partying before going on breakfast TV this morning," she says, despite the fact she is filling this tiny room, a shabby corner of the new BBC building in central London, with her warp-scale energy.
  • (8) But here inBritain – crammed into a shabby and overcrowded carriage on your way (thank God) out of your stressful City job – is there any joy to the journey?
  • (9) The UK chain generates two thirds of group profits and had been milked to bankroll international expansion, leading to shabby stores and deteriorating customer service.
  • (10) So what if the rooms are tiny, shabby and atmosphere-free?
  • (11) Appraising his shabby suit, the jeweller suggests he pick up something cheaper from the local bazaar.
  • (12) San Diego made some gesture towards addressing their shabby offensive line play by drafting offensive tackle DJ Fluker in the first round, but they needed to do more.
  • (13) In her day this was a gritty neighbourhood and it hasn’t changed much, with a shabby market by the metro station and blocks of peeling townhouses; this is the real, old Paris, the world she sang about, with its desperate cast of thieves and tramps and lovers.
  • (14) He told MPs he personally objected to having to pay a television licence fee of £145.50, as he attacked the coverage of the jubilee celebrations as "scandalous, shabby and rather unprofessional".
  • (15) The judge, perched in front of a shabby Russian flag, refused to look at the defence.
  • (16) Around 40 people crammed into the shabby courtroom, as dozens of journalists were left stranded outside, blocked from entering by burly police.
  • (17) His B of the Bang sculpture in Manchester was dismantled after it started shedding metal, and his Blue Carpet in Newcastle was late and over budget and in the space of a few years became grey and shabby .
  • (18) Malcolm Turnbull has launched a forceful defence of his investments in funds registered in the Cayman Islands , while condemning Labor for mounting a “shabby smear campaign” about his personal wealth, based on “the politics of envy”.
  • (19) When the PM next berates Jeremy Corbyn over a shabby suit, the Labour leader will be able to reply that, unlike Cameron, he isn’t receiving a subsidy for it from the party.
  • (20) The Senate was less than impressed with that shabby process and the Senate voted last night.” The government announced in the 2015 budget that it would give the Australian tax office greater powers to stop global companies using “artificial or contrived arrangements” to avoid tax obligations – but the Senate passed the legislation only after making an amendment relating to tax transparency.

Tacky


Definition:

  • (a.) Sticky; adhesive; raw; -- said of paint, varnish, etc., when not well dried.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But to be described as "tacky" is another thing entirely.
  • (2) The samples were periodically withdrawn for examination of yellowing and tackiness.
  • (3) He says they talk about "the love, life and losses of [Real Housewives Of Atlanta star] NeNe Leakes," and that they're "designing the merchandise for the next season of [equally tacky reality show] Bad Girls Club: Evian bottles replaced with leopard print covers to conceal the brand on TV.
  • (4) It ultimately led to his re-capture on Friday in a tacky hotel in Los Mochis, a town of tomato growers on the Pacific Coast.
  • (5) The five-year-old isn’t troubled that it might make her look tacky.
  • (6) Practical application is hampered by inherent characteristics of elastomers, i.e., high tackiness and highly hydrophobic surface properties.
  • (7) Most of the outfits he describes as "tacky" and features in his video look to me like those ones praised by fashion magazines.
  • (8) He's right, these aren't just modern irritants, they're downright tacky.
  • (9) 22 min "All this possession and ticky-tacky passing," says Sean Boiling.
  • (10) We might have thought that that was going to be the nadir of this teeth-grindingly tacky week, but then West Australian talk radio host and alleged adult Howard Sattler demonstrated that our concepts of “bottom of the barrel” were wildly optimistic.
  • (11) Abbott, the Liberal leader, said the menu was "tacky and scatological" but confirmed that Brough's candidacy was safe.
  • (12) Cameron Joseph (@cam_joseph) Donald Trump on Iraq's oil reserve: "I say we should take it and pay ourselves back" #CPAC March 15, 2013 12.52pm GMT "That's the problem with the country," Trump says after detailing how the White House wouldn't let him build one of his tacky black-and-gold-paneled ballrooms on their back lawn.
  • (13) Lidl will forever be associated for me with that illicit drink in its tacky rouge bottle.
  • (14) But what I especially enjoy about Weird Al's song is the way he deems tacky certain aspects of modern life that are now so common they can pass almost unseen: people Instagramming every meal (an "unfollow" offence if ever there was one); people who keep old liquor bottles in a pointless attempt to create a kind of speakeasy vibe; live-tweeting private occasions, and so on.
  • (15) They’ve taken something fine and beautiful and replaced it with something tacky and characterless and guess what?
  • (16) A woman who wears Versace fancies herself quite the molto molto sexy mama, with a dash of 80s tackiness thrown in.
  • (17) I had been trapped in the politically correct negative view of the relay, the view that the cult of the torch was an invented tradition foisted on the Olympics by the Nazis in 1936 and that the 2012 relay was a tacky stunt for drumming up phoney enthusiasm for the London Games from an otherwise indifferent public.
  • (18) As Shona says, certain styles and habits are described as "tacky" by Yankovic in this song, and I don't think many will disagree: Ed Hardy shirts, glitter Uggs, pink sequin Crocs.
  • (19) And you will not find Richard Branson pushing a trolley down the aisle for some tacky publicity stunt.
  • (20) Spinability, pourability, adhesiveness and tackiness are starting to be recognised as physical properties of RTS and its is likely that they may be relevant in the pathogenesis of airways obstruction.