shoddy characters
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
Persons of tarnished reputation, like cloth made of shoddy or refuse wool.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “shoddy characters” mean?
Persons of tarnished reputation, like cloth made of shoddy or refuse wool.
Is “shoddy characters” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.