Literary notes about Sluttish (AI summary)
The term “sluttish” is deployed in literature as a richly loaded adjective that connotes disorder, moral decay, and physical uncleanliness. It is used to describe characters or settings that appear disheveled or socially degraded, as when a character’s untidy appearance or behavior marks her as lacking refinement or proper decorum [1, 2]. Moreover, the word can be extended metaphorically to abstract realms—referring not just to a person’s condition but to the passage of time or the state of society, imbuing such descriptions with a sense of decay or sullied grandeur [3, 4]. In some contexts, its usage underscores class distinctions or societal judgments, suggesting that a person or their surroundings are unworthy or tarnished [5, 6].
- She is a pretty, stupid, and rather sluttish country girl of twenty, wearing a maid's uniform.
— from Night Must Fall : a Play in Three Acts by Emlyn Williams - She had not troubled to dress herself, but wore a dirty dressing-gown, and her hair was tied in a sluttish knot.
— from The Trembling of a Leaf: Little Stories of the South Sea Islands by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham - [116] But you shall shine more bright in these contents Than unswept stone besmear’d with sluttish time.
— from A Life of William Shakespearewith portraits and facsimiles by Lee, Sidney, Sir - Set them down For sluttish spoils of opportunity, And daughters of the game.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - We are to understand merely that she is what Ulysses calls a “sluttish spoil of opportunity,” and “daughter of the game.”
— from The Man Shakespeare and His Tragic Life Story by Frank Harris - I would not have him think us poor or sluttish.”
— from The Watcher, and other weird stories by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
