Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. fouled with excrement.

1846		Swell’s Night Guide 49: Which of us had hold of the crappy (sh—ten) end of the stick?
1965		L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 32: You dirty, filthy, stinky, crappy, Commie dopey toilet!
1986		T. Winton That Eye, The Sky 120: Four big kids yell: ‘Melon!’ and drag me in the dunnies [...] and shove my head in the crappiest bowl and flush.

2. (UK, Glasgow) terrified.

1935

(con. 1920s) McArthur & Long No Mean City 296: ‘Can you no’ say something?’ she shrieked. ‘Are you crappy or what, John Gray? Are yo no’ man enough to go an’ take on that dirty bastard, Razor King.’.

3. (also krappy) second-rate.

1929		E. Dahlberg Bottom Dogs 211: He hadn’t been in the army for nuthin’; not paid half his government check for the krappy cigarettes them social secs. palmed off on the fellas in the trenches.
1932		J.L. Kuethe ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 331: crappy — boastful; nonsensical; no good.
1945		in T. Shibutani Derelicts of Company K (1978) 121: Just because he’s dumb, that’s no excuse for giving us a crappy lecture like that. Shit, anybody knows that stuff.
1956		T. Anderson Your Own Beloved Sons 71: He finds out this is the crappiest deal they’ve ever handed him.
1967		N. Dunn Poor Cow 77: The cheap crappy shoes.
1975		T. Berger Sneaky People (1980) 154: His face against her cheek was [...] smelling not of crappy barber’s bay rum but some classy aftershave.
1983		S. Gee Never in My Lifetime in Best Radio Plays (1984) 75: It’s this crappy room – what sort of a room is this to bring your girl to?
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 234: They looked ridiculous [...] bumping into crappy lawn furniture.
1998		A. Warner Sopranos 46: ‘That ring on your engaged finger, Micehlle?’ ‘Nah, it’s just a crappy-nothing-ring’.
2003		Observer 8 June 3: I’ve still got to pass my test so I’ll get a crappy car first.
2006		C. Carr Our Town 265: He complained that the police had done a ‘crappy job and pulled a lot of violations of people’s civil rights today’.
2012		M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] Parker cursed Sid’s incompetence and crappy driving.
2016		D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] The crappy wooden door inside, loose on its hinges, gave him even less trouble.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 193: McCoy had worked at Eastern [police HQ] for a while [...] crappy shop he’d got out of as soon as he could.
2021		‘Aidan Truhen’ Seven Demons 221: I told the head of Lindo-Michaelsen to kiss my ring if he thought I was buying his crappy fauxlombian [coffee].
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 18: ‘You must be a pretty crappy messiah’.

4. in colour, reminiscent of excrement.

1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 9: This one [i.e. house] was a crappy green with puke-brown trimming.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 22: Isn’t that a crappy color.

5. unpleasant, distasteful.

1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 153: Paula [...] got tied up with a lot of crappy propaganda.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 248: That crappy dumb parallel.
1984		‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 133: I didn’t want to work at any crappy job.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 21 Feb. 6: I’d had a crappy journey over.
2004		T. Winton ‘Immunity’ in Turning (2005) 295: Sorta crappy town, he said.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 53: Some really crappy meatloaf and instant potatoes.

6. unwell.

1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 101: Crappy Have a minor illness, feel sick.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 236: ‘I feel crappy,’ said Brodie. She put down her spoon and made a sour face.
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 21: Suddenly I’m all clammy and slabby and crappy, and the ache of my pain screams.