Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. infested with lice.

1866		Bradford Obs. 6 Dec. 6/6: I begged to be allowed to keep my clothes on, protesting that I was not ‘crummy’.
1863		Criminal Life (NY) 19 Dec. n.p.: Nathaniel Howard keeps an awful crib [...] If any man can stand beside one of his bummers [...] without getting crumby, we are good for a bottle of wine.
1873		Sl. Dict. 135: Crummy In London street slang, lousy.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 21: Crummy Doss, a filthy bed.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 233: They all agreed in saying that the place was ‘crummy’ (infested with vermin).
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 15 June 4/2: Naming the Neddy [...] He [...] said he would prefer something reminiscent of its sire, ‘Scotch Grey,’ and [...] I suggested ‘Chatty,’ or ‘Crummy’.
1914		B.J. Brookes diary 9 Dec. 🌐 On the march back [...] a careful observer will notice a large amount of wriggling and scratching going on, and then the men realise that they are ‘chatty’ or ‘crumby.’ [..] once started it is almost impossible to get rid of these objectionable livestock.
1916		R. Service ‘The Little Piou-Piou’ Rhymes of a Red Cross Man 150: So grimy and hard, so calloused and scarred, / So ‘crummy,’ yet gay as can be.
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 345: Crumby. Verminous.
1925		J. Tully Beggars of Life 5: Them old birds’re too lazy to scratch themselves when they’re crummy.
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 268: He will stop to insert a hand under his armpit and thoughfully claw himself. ‘If you’re sae crummy as a’ that, man, [...] why the de’il do ye no’ tak’ aff your shirt and wash it!’.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Crumbed up, lousy.
1935		N. Algren Somebody in Boots 139: I’d ruther go to jail fer a week then sing one of them chicken-dribble songs jest fer a crumby cot.
1949		A.I. Bezzerides Thieves’ Market 199: When Mitch picked her up she was so crummy, about all she could pick up were fleas.
1960, 1975		(ref. to 1910) Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

2. generally filthy.

1899		Kipling ‘An Unsavoury Interlude’ Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 78: It’s a crummy place.
1923		E. O’Neill Hairy Ape Act III: Yuh dirty, crummy, muck-eatin’ son of a —.
1928		Hecht & MacArthur Front Page Act I: A lot of crumby hoboes.
1930		G. Milburn ‘The Stew-Bum’ Hobo’s Hornbook 136: And take it from a crummy bum that knows.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 301: I guess we look kind of crummy. We been fishing all day.
1944		J. Archibald ‘Skip Tracer Bullets’ Popular Detective June 🌐 You are crumbier than a breakfast crumb bun.
1953		J. Thompson Alcoholics (1993) 57: Letting him louse around in a crummy old bathrobe.
1960		Mad mag. Sept. 38: The greasy-spoon restaurant owner takes this photo of his overpriced crumby lunch.
1964		Larner & Tefferteller Addict in the Street (1966) 227: And not in a crummy dump like I live in.
1974		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell Plays Solomon (1976) 22: A crummy dump of a hospital in the dreary East End.
1975		J. Roe The Same Old Grind 117: ‘What if someone puts his hands on me?’ ‘Tell him to take his crummy meathooks off’.
1999		Indep. Rev. 23 July 13: He was holed up ‘in this really crummy hotel’.
2011		D.R. Pollock Devil All the Time 101: [S]itting alone in that crummy apartment night after night.

3. (also crummy-ass) second-rate, inferior, unpleasant.

1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 407: Every morning quite a bulky parcel of crummy-feeling letters are delivered at his residence.
1881		Newcastle Courant 2 Dec. 6/6: Now, you crummy gloak, what are you dozing there for?
1888		‘’Arry at a Radical Reception’ in Punch 12 May 219/1: A crummy old Liberal dowd [...] and a twenty-stun white-’aired old Rad / Nearly made me a pancake between ’em.
1898		H.B. Vogel Maori Maid 150: She’s his eldest girl, I believe [...] By gad! she’s crumby.
1899		Jewish South (Richmond, VA) 17 Mar. 11/2: This crummy little count should not blast the entire race with his bazoo.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 4 Sept. 2/6: Startin’ games a little crummy, / Some as do say they is queer.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 158: ‘It would have to go a thundering long way,’ I says, ‘to make your crumby cottages taste like cracknels.’.
1927		K. Nicholson Barker II i: The crummiest broad on the outfit, an’ you have to get messed up with her!
1934		R. Sale ‘A Nose for News’ in Goulart (1967) 212: Listen, you crumby little bun [...] come clean.
1939		J. Weidman What’s In It For Me? 189: I’d done some crummy things in my day, but I wouldn’t do that.
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 34: Why hang around a crumby relief station, with a mob of crumby greenhorns.
1944		A. Kapelner Lonely Boy Blues (1965) 92: Get killed, you fat crummy bum!
1947		N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 119: I don’t come from this crumby neighborhood.
1952		C. Brossard Redemption in G. Feldman (ed.) Protest (1960) 118: Thirteen lousy bucks. I could send you up for six months for those thirteen crumby bucks, you know that?
1956		‘Ed Lacy’ Men from the Boys (1967) 10: My stomach’s been a brute. Gas, the runs, and feeling crummy in general.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 110: [He] was notorious for being quite undoubtedly the crumbiest singer since — well, choose your own.
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: Get back to Wales, you Cardiff creep. Only good for digging coal and singing hymns, your crummy lot.
1960		Mad mag. Mar. 6: ‘Mickey Mouse Watches’ [...] crummy junk like that.
1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 56: I found out that with headshrinkers the ones who act nicest to your face can be the crummiest behind your back.
1969		P. Theroux Murder in Mount Holly (1999) 22: Like when you find out that your best buddy is a crumby stooge.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 185: One crumby pub was bunged up to the gills.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 74: I had to maintain what little rep I had left in this crumby hotel.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 106: My old lady and the bondsman are hanging out in this crummy office.
1974		D. Goines Daddy Cool (1997) 123: This is one crummy-ass world we live in.
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 36: Maybe he wasn’t just a crummy car burglar trying to get by.
1988		R. Doyle Commitments 103: It’s a crumby bloody thing anyway.
1996		S. Frank Get Shorty [film script] We see a fidgety LEO DEVOE, a little guy in a crummy suit and a little green hat sitting there in coach, looking around.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 203: ‘A crowd of battlers in a crummy auditorium, me telling blue jokes’.
1999		Guardian Rev. 9 July 7: Arquette toiled away for years in crummy teen pictures.
2001		Mason Valley News (Yerington, NV) 16 Mar. 4/1: That crumby gremlin managed to get spots on my sleeves, pants and one [...] smack dab in the center of the light yellow shirt.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 272: I felt so happy at that moment it was almost crummy.
2008		D. Sedaris When You’re Engulfed in Flames 50: This year I turned forty. I threa out all my denim so instead of crummy jeans I walked around in crummy slacks.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 193: [T]his tinpot Dodge [City] with its crummy back-to-backs, its pot-bellied hard-men.
2012		(con. 1954) ‘Jack Tunney’ Tomato Can Comeback [ebook] Crummy job [...] Kickin’ people when they’re down.
2018		(con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 3: [T]he worst band in the crummiest clip joint in the city.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 367: ‘I wrote a crummy script. I’m a crummy actress’.

4. in fig. use of sense 1: i.e. ‘lousy with’.

1929		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 16 Mar. [synd. col.] Miss Morgan [...] is simply crummy with gold certificates [...] and other valuable papers.
1952		W. Winchell On Broadway 2 Sept. [synd. col.] The staff was crummy with commies.

5. (US) used fig., corrupt, criminal, underhand.

1960		(con. 1930) J. Havoc Early Havoc 213: ‘I been a winner four times [...] and I ain’t puttin’ up with no crummy goings-on’.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 110: ‘[A]s crummy men go, she’s gone from the frying pan into the fire’.

6. a general negative intensifier, synon. with lousy adj.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1951		J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye (1958) 5: He’s in Hollywood. That isn’t too far from this crumby place.
1953		W. Harrison Army Girl (1962) 16: I happened into a crummy joint, and there you were.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 431: She had been in there all that time drinking [...] while he waited outside like some crumby pup.
1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 130: If he’d had one crummy scintilla of property or position or responsibility.
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 45: He’s got such a crummy temper.

7. out of sorts, ‘off colour’.

1953		J. Thompson Criminal (1993) 45: I felt just as crummy as she did.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 256: Been feelin kinda crummy lately.
1983		R. Price Breaks 161: I was feeling so crummy that I lavished praise on every flat 500-word monotone.