shoddy

& a. [Prob. from being at first the waste stuff shed or thrown off in spinning wool; A. S. sceádan =to shed, to divide.] A. As subst.: Old woolen or worsted fabrics torn to pieces by a machine having spiked rollers (termed a devil), cleansed, and the fiber spun with a certain proportion of new wool, the yarn being afterward woven into the full-bodied but flimsy fabric, also known as shoddy, and made into cheap cloth, table covers, . Shoddy Manufacture : The substances to be ground are fed on to a table or feed sheet, and conveyed to two fluted rollers, on emerging from which they are vigorously seized by the rapidly revolving teeth of the main cylinder, the latter containing about 1,500 strong, sharp steel teeth, turning at the rate of sometimes 750 revolutions per minute. This high speed results in tearing the rags apart and separating the threads and fiber in such a manner, that the whole is finally reduced to a soft, woolly condition. B. As adjective : 1. Made of shoddy; as, shoddy cloth. 2. Of a trashy or inferior character; pretentious, not genuine, sham. "A fleet of ships, shoddier by a hundredfold than the shoddiest of those now afloat." -London Daily Telegraph. shoddy-fever, s .