🏨 A cheap hotel 🧔‍♂️ A dirty person

fleabag

6 7.5

A dirty, untidy person or animal often used as a mild insult

noun
/ˈfliˌbæɡ/

Offensive

: desarrapado

The kids affectionately called their scruffy pet a fleabag due to his messy fur.

Every incompetent, morally bankrupt bottom feeder fleabag that he can find races to work for him.

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Examples

Get back up there, fleabag!

Bingo (1991)
You're not worth his time, fleabag.

Underdog (2007)
Nice old fleabag you got there.

Epic (2013)
Come on, you dirty old fleabag, come on.

Blue Fire Lady (1977)
Oh, no, not some fleabag.

Six Degrees of Separation (1993)
Don't you let that fleabag near me.

Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987)
This is Billy, and that fleabag at your feet is Clancy.

North to Alaska (1960)
Come on, fleabag!

Tangled (2010)
Look at that fleabag! It hasn't been groomed in weeks.
Despite her shabby appearance, the little dog was still a loveable fleabag.

Synonyms

scraggle

vsfleabag

Offensive

1 9.9

A thin, ragged person or animal that looks weak

means someone dirty and shabby rather than mainly thin

Antonyms

neat

123 1.0

Clean and tidy with things in order

well-groomed

11 3.5

Neat and tidy in appearance with clean clothes and neat hair

How Unkempt

fleabag

Offensive

6 7.5

untidiness

1 2.5

Surface Forms

fleabag singular

fleabags plural

Morphology

fleabag = flea + bag (semi-transparent) = flea + bag

The compound evokes dirtiness or worthlessness from 'flea' + 'bag', but its application to a person or animal is a derogatory metaphor rather than a literal descriptor.

Etymology

The word fleabag originally pictured a thing 'full of fleas', so calling a person or animal a fleabag paints them as shabby or dirty. That's why it is often used as a mild joke or insult about someone who looks unkempt.