Green’s Dictionary of Slang

inferior, second-rate.

1753		S. Richardson Charles Grandison V 56: This is one of the rubbishy notions I want to remove. He would have it that I did .
1817		Carlisle Patriot 15 Feb. 3/4: What with thin rubbishy goods, and high prices, and false colours [...] there would be a terrible day of reckoning.
1828		Dublin Eve. Mail 12 Sept. 3/3: A somewhat decenter show of Lords [...] A few less rubbishy Baronets.
1834		Roscommon & Leitrim Gaz. 30 Aug. 2/2: ‘Think ov that, sir, to call the fine praytees [...] rubbishy stuff!!’.
1847		Sth Eastern Gaz. 23 Nov. 6/3: He had brought some rubbishy iron before, and I had given him a farthing a pound for it.
1858		Sussex Advertiser 19 Oct. 5/6: Mrs Dunstone [...] asked them if they had a little rubbishy straw to give her.
1868		Cork Examiner 2 Nov. 2/2: A correspondent has taken the trouble to send us a rubbishy document which [...] is being circulated in Bandon.
1878		Huddersfield Chron. 19 Jan. 3/6: When it comes to a matter of deciding what is rubbishy, we bow to his superior wisdom.
1882		Tuapeka Times (Otago) 16 Sept. 4: Your telegrams were rubbishy.
1898		Dly Ardmoreite (OK) 20 Mar. 2/2: [advert] We may charge you a few cents more than you will pay for the rubbishy socks, but [etc].
1911		Sun. Times (Perth) 16 July 6/5: What a lot of Government rubbish departments require dynamiting.
1912		‘R. Andom’ Neighbours of Mine 38: Now, I suppose, I shall be sent trotting all over the place with your rotten bits of sticks and rubbishy plated stuff.
1922		H. Munro ‘One Day Awake’ in Chap Book Dec. 6: All your rubbishy prattle.
1932		D.L. Sayers Have His Carcase 415: Anything that’s worth keeping, I’ll keep, but not rubbishing bits of paper.
1932		‘William Hatfield’ Ginger Murdoch 64: Bah! Getting old and sentimental. Sloppy. Just a rubbishing song!
1945		J.B. Priestly Three Men in New Suits 68: They have money to spend – drink, football, pools, dogs, any rubbishy thing they fancy.
1963		N. Dunn Up the Junction 60: I could tell they were rubbish directly they looked in.
1978		A. Ayckbourn Joking Apart II i: He’s a rubbish player. You can beat him.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 146: You not only are rubbish, you talk rubbish as well.
1999		Indep. Rev. 2 July 8: They never expected I would defend myself. It’s a rubbish, rubbish, rubbish case.
2009		J. Joso Soothing Music for Stray Cats 197: I’d done a rubbish job. [...] Let the both of you down.
2010		Sun. Times Mag. 19 Dec. 62/1: He may have been rubbish on the pitch [...] but off it he’s played a blinder.
2013		Guardian On Line 24 Aug. 🌐 On the Colorado chronic scene, rubbish beards and backwards baseball caps seem to be compulsory.
2017		V. McDermid Insidious Intent (2018) 109: ‘I’m rubbish at paperwork’.