How to Use sloppy in a Sentence

sloppy

adjective
  • Your work has been very sloppy lately.
  • The game was sloppy on both sides.
    — Buddy Collings, The Orlando Sentinel, 16 Aug. 2025
  • Is this the reason for some of their sloppy play?
    — Aaliyan Mohammed, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Aug. 2025
  • The sloppy play wasn’t from a lack of effort.
    — Cedric Golden, Austin American Statesman, 16 Jan. 2026
  • The third quarter was sloppy on both sides.
    — Jordan Neal, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 4 Oct. 2025
  • There were sloppy spots in all three phases.
    — Nick Kosmider, New York Times, 14 Jan. 2026
  • The cold, rainy night led to sloppy play from both teams early.
    — Jacob Calvin Meyer, baltimoresun.com, 8 Nov. 2019
  • The Padres were sloppy at times on the bases and in the field.
    — Kevin Acee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Aug. 2025
  • Still, plushy, squelchy chairs don’t have to look sloppy either.
    — Kate McGregor, Architectural Digest, 9 Apr. 2026
  • The first half was sloppy for both teams as the two totaled nine turnovers each.
    — Nathan Canilao, The Mercury News, 1 Mar. 2025
  • That’s about all there is to know about how lifeless and sloppy this game was.
    — Derrik Klassen, New York Times, 8 Jan. 2023
  • With both teams deprived of rest, this game could get sloppy in one of two ways.
    — Chris Wassel, USA TODAY Sportsbook Wire, 2 Nov. 2019
  • This was painful to watch, and not just the sloppy play with wedges and two water balls.
    — CBS News, 21 May 2022
  • One of the show's most iconic beauty looks was meant to be sloppy.
    — Taylore Glynn, Marie Claire, 28 Oct. 2020
  • The Huskies started off the game sloppy with two straight turnovers.
    — Shreyas Laddha, courant.com, 27 Feb. 2022
  • The result was nine first-half turnovers and a handful of sloppy plays.
    — Gary Washburn, BostonGlobe.com, 6 Dec. 2022
  • Some of them were the result of great defense, but many were from sloppy play.
    — Giana Han, al, 3 Jan. 2021
  • The last year the race took place on a sloppy track was in 2018.
    — Mike Klingaman, baltimoresun.com, 15 May 2021
  • Humor tends to wilt through the decades; what was once a bite becomes a sloppy kiss.
    — Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 3 Apr. 2023
  • The play fit right in to the sloppy baseball played between these teams over the past two years.
    — Theo MacKie, The Arizona Republic, 27 Apr. 2022
  • Both teams were playing the second night of back-to-back, which led to some sloppy play.
    — Matthew Coles, Chron, 9 May 2021
  • The Celtics had a sloppy start, with six turnovers over the game’s first eight minutes.
    — Adam Himmelsbach, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Feb. 2023
  • Too much of the banter is sloppy and too many of her mistakes are avoidable.
    — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 13 Oct. 2025
  • It's been a sloppy response here by the White House.
    — ABC News, 8 Feb. 2026
  • Monday night’s game was a sloppy affair.
    — Patrick Saunders, Denver Post, 1 June 2026
  • The sloppy start took the edge off the middle game of the showdown series.
    — Bill Plunkett, Oc Register, 17 Aug. 2025
  • The problem with people on the right is that their thinking is just sloppy.
    — David Zane Mairowitz, Rolling Stone, 22 Dec. 2025
  • The lead shortened due to sloppy play and a lapse in defense from the Libs.
    — Fiifi Frimpong, New York Daily News, 28 May 2025
  • But that didn't explain why the sloppy fakes existed in the first place.
    — Padmakumar Nair, Forbes.com, 22 May 2026
  • If those rules are broken, the coffee table starts to look more sloppy than stylish.
    — Quincy Bulin, Southern Living, 3 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sloppy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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