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Glite Dictionary
Sloppy Joe

Sloppy Joe

6 3.0
A sandwich with ground beef cooked in a spicy tomato sauce on a bun
  • noun
  • /ˈslɑpi ˈdʒoʊ/
  • US
translation icon : Sloppy Joe
  • I'm making Sloppy Joes for dinner.
  • Sloppy Joe sauce
  • Sloppy Joe sandwich
  • make sloppy joes

In Indiana, the sloppy Joe is sometimes referred to as a Dutch hamburger.

Examples

  • I haven't had sloppy joes since I was six.

    The Cook (2008)

  • I love sloppy joes.

    The Cook (2008)

  • Two beers and a sloppy joe on a hard roll.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • I did not have a lot of sloppy joes except when the lunch ladies made them.

  • We're having Sloppy Joes tonight, if you wanna come over.

    Manny & Lo (1996)

  • In Indiana, the sloppy Joe is sometimes referred to as a Dutch hamburger.

    First We Feast

  • Sloppy Joes have arrived!

    Lean on Pete (2018)

  • Sloppy Joes are here.

    Lean on Pete (2018)

  • She's making Sloppy Joes.

    Manny & Lo (1996)

  • Tonight, we're having Sloppy Joes for dinner with a side of fries.

How Saucy

pulled pork
5 2.4
Sloppy Joe
  • US
6 3.0
sub
  • Informal
27 2.8
hamburger
119 1.0

Surface Forms

Sloppy Joe singular
Sloppy Joes plural

Morphology

sloppy + Joe

Although 'sloppy' clearly means messy, 'Joe' is a personal name with no transparent culinary sense; the phrase is a lexicalized dish name rather than a predictable composition. A B1 learner who knows the words would not reliably infer that it denotes a specific ground‑beef sandwich in tomato sauce, so the expression is not transparently derivable from its parts.

Etymology

The sandwich Sloppy Joe may come from a cook named Joe who served a loose tomato-and-beef filling that was very sloppy and often fell out of the bun, so people started calling it that. That's why today Sloppy Joe means 'a messy meat sandwich'.