seedy

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   morally degraded

   a seedy district

2. 2
   adj

   full of seeds

   as seedy as a fig

3. 3
   adj

   Literal senses:

   Pomegranates are as seedy as any fruit you are likely to see.

4. 4
   adj

   Inferior in condition or quality.

   Sleazy city / Seedy films / Breathing so heavy / Next to my neighbour / Let’s get acquainted

5. 5
   adj

   somewhat ill or prone to illness

6. 6
   adj

   shabby and untidy

Etymology

From Middle English sedy, equivalent to seed + -y. The senses with negative connotation, first attested by 1725 in slang, originally especially “poor, out of money”, probably arose from the metaphor of a flower that has gone to seed, and is no longer considered beautiful. From there the word came to be used to describe unwell or past-their-prime people, and parallelly run-down places and by extension low-income or crime-affected urban areas. Compare the figurative expressions go to seed (by 1817), etc., originally in reference to plants, “cease flowering as seeds develop”.