sleaze n.
1. (US, also sleez, sleazebitchlet) a sexually promiscuous woman.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Current Sl. VI 9: Sleez, n. A girl of uncertain virtue; a slut. | |
| Campus Sl. Mar. 6: sleaze – a female who does not resist sexual advances. | |
| (con. 1970) 13th Valley (1983) 405: He got it fuckin a sleeze in the ville at the height of orgasm. | |
| Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 185: They’re all sleazes, but we got the best-looking sleazes. | |
| 8 Ball Chicks (1998) 107: They were just skanks, bitches, sleazes, easy lays. Hos. | |
| Campus Sl. Apr. 9: sleeze – sexually promiscuous female. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Observer Rev. 7 May 18: Then there’s Flora Montgomery as a Tory sleazebitchlet on the make. |
2. (also sleazster) an unappealing, seedy person.
 | Tel. (Brisbane) 3 Aug. 10/3: When I made the mistake of calling them ‘sleazy’ to their faces, their reaction was outrage. ‘Don’t call me a sleaze,’ said Miss Currie. | |
| ‘Sad, Sad, Sad’ 🎵 Fools aren’t going to follow / You don’t need the sleaze about. | |
| Vice Cop 160: ‘The sleaze left. We’re all in on it for a C-note a week’. | |
| Sun. Times News Rev. 12 Mar. 1: At first glance the affair looked like a high-handed sleazster being brought to book. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 169/2: sleaze n. 2 a scab, a bludger. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | ‘Defender’ in Turning (2005) 307: I mean it’s just so grotty. The bloke was [...] such a sleaze. | |
| Thrill City [ebook] He was always a bit of a sleaze so I wasn’t terribly sorry to hear he was dead. |
3. (US, also sleazo) anything considered disgusting, shabby or offensive; also attrib.
| News Jrnl (Wilmington, DE) 30 Aug. 19/3: His movies were pure sleaze. | |
| News Jrnl (Wilmington, DE) 30 Aug. 19/3: The sleazos are coming [...] but probably not to your town. | |
| After The Ball 304: Not all sleaze addicts choose to advertise the fact in newspapers. | |
| (con. 1950) L.A. Confidential [film script] The essence of sleaze, Sid is the publisher-photographer-writer of Hush-Hush magazine and keeper of inside dirt supreme. | |
| Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] [N]ow there was a noticeable sleaze. Head shops, disposal stores, adult book shops, triple-X videos, video games arcades [etc]. | |
| Anniston Star (AL) 8 Aug. 9A/4: New Orleans is my favorite sleaze town. | |
| Introduction in Pulling a Train’ [ebook] [of softcore pornography] The first of these (now referred to as) ‘sleaze’ (or, sometimes, ‘zilch’) paperbacks were from imprimaturs such as Beacon Books, Bedside Books [etc]. |
4. corruption, esp. in business or politics.
| Herald & Rev. (Decatur, IL) 28 Dec. 34/3: The unctuous ‘sleaze’ oozing meretriciously from every pore. My chosen headline: ‘The Politics of Sleaze’. | |
| Indep. 22 July 3: The publicity will scupper the party’s attempts to dispel the image of ‘Tory sleaze’. | |
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 169/2: sleaze n. 1 a bribe. | |
| (ref. to 1984) Dly Record (Morristown, NJ) 10 May AA5/1: Clinton’s troubles bring to mind the ‘sleaze factor,’ an expression used by Walter Mondale [...] in the 1984 [...] campaign to describe what he called ‘a tawdry record or unethical conduct’. |
In derivatives
1. (US) a disgusting, obnoxious person.
| Serial 78: You still seeing El Sleazo these days? | |
| Suicide Hill 239: [T]he rock sleazos she might have run to. | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 359: Other sleazy constructions include [...] sleazo, and sleazoid. |
2. attrib. use of sense 3.
| Silence of the Lambs (1991) 5: Didn’t a sleazo magazine offer him fifty thousand dollars for some recipes? | |
| Plainclothes Naked (2002) 112: The doors of the 7-Eleven blew open and a trio of sleazoid white guys swaggered out. | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 41: The California State Assembly probed sleazoid scandal rags. |
3. a sexually promiscuous woman.
| Campus Sl. Nov. 4: sleezoid – sexually aggressive female. | |
| Sl. and Sociability 79: Among the slang items that seem to derive their humor from the polysyllabic Latin- and Greek-based elements of the vocabulary are sleazoid ‘a promiscuous female’. |
4. see sense 3
In compounds
1. a distasteful person, with overtones of dirtiness, criminality and sexual excess.
| Glitter Dome (1982) 81: The listing party’s description could have fit a thousand sleazeballs from the boulevard. | |
| Campus Sl. Oct. 10: sleezebag – a female with questionable morality. | |
| Sl. U. 3: Ronnie’s a total sleazebag; he spits on people when he talks to them. | |
| Sth Florida Sun Sentinel (Ft Lauderdale, FL) 20 Dec. 17/1: She is basically a sleazebal. | |
| Llama Parlour 69: The salesman, a sleazebag in cowboy chaps. | |
| Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] Here comes exactly the kind of rumpled, predatory, middle-aged sleazebag I always end up fucking. | |
| Montana Standard (Butte, MT) 5 July 4/5: The sleazyballs that make up part of the Clinton family. | |
| Observer Rev. 11 Oct. 3: Tracking down hookers or the elusive sleazeballs who ran them. | |
| Guardian Guide 5–11 Feb. 55: The trail leading past a baffling, bruising collection of sleazeballs and sociopaths. | |
| A Study in Death 278: To Jacobson’s complete delight, she continually referred to his wife’s lover as old sleazyballs. | |
| Big Ask 242: He was an oppressor of women. A sexual harasser and serial sleazebag. | |
| Pain Killers 108: I could [...] pass as drug dealer, seller, hit man, porn purveyor, every breed of sleazebag. | |
| Thrill City [ebook] The friend of Victoria Hitchens’ sleaze-bag husband. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | (con. 1980s) Skagboys 303: He’s a sleazebag [...] Ye cannae let a wanker like that put ye off. | |
| Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) 19 Jan. A2/3: Sextrafficking involves exploitation of people [...] for some sleazeball’s commercial gain. | |
| Paducah Sun (KY) 14 Oct. A7/5: He called a reporter ‘a sleazebag’. | |
| Dead Man’s Trousers [22]: — You fucking sleazebag! Did you set your own son up with a prostitute when he was below the age of consent?! |
2. attrib. use of sense 1.
| Orlando Sentinel (FL) 14 Jan. 1-C/1: I you care about freedom [...] get excited about the people in communist prisons instead of some sleaze-bag mobster. | |
| Baltimore Sun (MD) 25 Sept. 24/4: ‘This is sleazy-ball politics’. | |
| Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 105: There are some sleazeball liars in other parts of the South who advertise B-B-Q17. | |
| S. Homeboy 292: The sleazeball agent screamed for twenty minutes. | |
| Londonstani (2007) 14: Greasy sleazebag bullshit merchant. | |
| Drawing Dead [ebook] He was the sleazebag fuck looking for his runaway daughter. | |
| Chicago Trib. 26 Sept. 4/2: The rest of the movie concerns the Russian sleazeball, higher up the sleazeball management. |
see sense 3 above.
see separate entries.
a seedy, run-down place, a down-market bar or club.
| Howard the Duck 69: Your boss is a goon and his business is a sleazehole. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Mondo Desperado 14: Wrong is two little babies sleeping upstairs while their mother sneaks out to some forsaken sleazehole to feed her habit. | |
| Post Star (Glen Falls, NY) 29 Jan. 23/4: They are nothing like [...] the violent sleaze-holes portrayed in voyeuristic trash TV. |
(US) a producer or seller of inferior, trashy or pornographic entertainment.
| State (London) 20 June 17/4: Bradford as her pompous father being interviewed by Holcroft-Page’s tabloid sleazemonger. | |
| ‘You Are Tony Blair’ on Brains Trust 🌐 Tabloid sleazemonger, extraordinaire and world-class spinner, Clifford makes heroes out of working class nobodies and superstars out of the wealthy and talentless. | |
| ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 343: Slick sleazemonger. Ripe-rumored extortionist. |