sleaze
/sliːz
/noun [mass noun]
1British Immoral, sordid, and corrupt behaviour or activities: political campaigns that are long on sleaze and short on substance...
- And evils like corruption, bribery, sleaze and fraud leave an impact on young minds that yearn for an avenue to let their radical thoughts out.
- But behind the make-up was a hotbed of corruption, violence, sleaze and racism that ruled the streets of Shanghai.
- I have closely followed the debate on the pros and cons of the European Union and make no secret of my distress that we belong to this body of sleaze, corruption and its anti-democratic practices.
1.1 [count noun] informal, chiefly North American A sordid, corrupt, or immoral person: having failed as a leading man, he triumphs as a sleaze...
- But to so-called scholars, Italians are born sleazes and Machiavelli was the King Sleazo.
- The service is on the poor side and as I said on the weekends it is packed with classless sleazes.
- When standing on the dancefloor, I could have been in any typical club around Leicester Square or Piccadilly Circus… plenty of drunks, try-hards, sleazes, idiots, and easy girls all packed in.
verb [no object, with adverbial] informal
Behave in an immoral, corrupt, or sordid way: you’re the last person who has to sleaze around bars...
- And it's this guy who was sleazing onto me at my recent house party.
- So I was showing her affection and everyone was thinking, what's this guy doing, sleazing all over her?
- And Susan's been sleazing all over Sean for the past week-'
Origin
1960s: back-formation from sleazy.