lousy

Meanings

1. 1adjectivecomparableinformaldisapproving

   Of very poor quality or very disappointing.

   Grammar: Informal; used before a noun or after be.

   Patterns

   • a lousy day
   • lousy at something

   The service at that cafe was lousy.

   I had a lousy night's sleep.

   He is a lousy cook, but he tries hard.

2. 2adjectiveafter a verbinformal

   Feeling unwell, sad or ashamed.

   Grammar: Used with feel: I feel lousy.

   Patterns

   • feel lousy about something

   I feel lousy today, so I'm staying in bed.

   She felt lousy about forgetting his birthday.

   You look lousy; did you sleep at all?

3. 3adjectivebefore a nouninformaldisapproving

   Very small or disappointing in amount, used when complaining.

   Grammar: Always before a noun and implies a complaint.

   Patterns

   • a lousy amount

   They paid me a lousy ten dollars for the whole day.

   All that effort for a lousy trophy?

   He gave a lousy two percent raise.

Word forms

Common combinations

lousy weather

We had lousy weather for the entire trip.

feel lousy

I feel lousy after that long flight.

a lousy job

They did a lousy job of painting the fence.

lousy at

I'm lousy at remembering names.

a lousy idea

Skipping breakfast before an exam is a lousy idea.

lousy with

The street was lousy with tourists.

Synonyms and how they differ

rotten

Rotten is about equally informal but can also suggest something spoiled or mean.

awful

Awful is stronger and can be used in more formal writing, while lousy is chatty.

poor

Poor is neutral and polite, whereas lousy shows annoyance.

crummy

Crummy is milder and slightly more playful than lousy.

Opposites

Word family

lousily adverb

in a poor way, rare

lousiness noun

the state of being lousy

louse noun

a small insect parasite, the source of the word

Commonly confused: lousy or lousy?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “lousy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Explore more words