How to Use squalid in a Sentence

squalid

adjective
Definition of squalidnext
Synonyms for squalidnext
  • The family lived in squalid conditions.
  • And then there are the ones whose omission verges on the squalid.
    — vanityfair.com, 15 Sep. 2017
  • Charnier comes from the sunshine of Marseille, and Doyle from the (then) squalid streets of New York.
    — Peter Cowie, WSJ, 15 Oct. 2021
  • Thus ends the squalid account of Henry Every and the crew of the Fancy.
    — Howard Schneider, National Review, 15 Aug. 2020
  • Once the exchange stopped, prisons got more and more crowded and more and more squalid.
    — Diana Gitig, Ars Technica, 22 Oct. 2018
  • Soon, the squalid sea water that runs beneath Hong Kong’s streets sloshed around his knees.
    — Suzanne Sataline, Quartz, 30 Nov. 2019
  • The toddler's body was found under a couch in her squalid home after a 30-hour search.
    — Alicia Fabbre, chicagotribune.com, 25 July 2017
  • The conditions are squalid, and the crush of new arrivals has stretched aid agencies thin.
    — Max Bearak, Washington Post, 8 Sep. 2017
  • Basateen is filled with migrants living in squalid shacks.
    — Washington Post, 2 Nov. 2019
  • And, much as in Europe, some families were kicked out of their homes and forced to live in squalid ghettos.
    — Theo Zenou, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Mar. 2024
  • Many are in a squalid commercial district known as Skid Row.
    — Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY, 8 June 2019
  • In Matamoros, across from Brownsville, about 1,000 asylum seekers have lived there for months, some for more than a year in a squalid tent camp.
    — Dianne Solis, Dallas News, 10 Feb. 2021
  • Tens of thousands have now been confined to squalid displacement camps for a decade.
    — Reuters, CNN, 22 July 2022
  • Raised in a tiny two-room house in a squalid neighborhood, Sayeda spent much of her childhood on her own.
    — Smita Sharma, National Geographic, 28 Sep. 2020
  • Such keen self-awareness was well buried a decade ago, tucked in a squalid little casket with all the good metaphors and a large hunk of talent.
    — James Robins, Vulture, 1 May 2023
  • Most of them were in squalid Libyan detention centres or destitute on the streets of Tripoli.
    — The Economist, 28 Mar. 2018
  • In the midst of a squalid surrender, one young general had spoken up for France.
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2021
  • Book 1 centers on the squalid circumstances of his death—and threatens a lawsuit.
    — Sam Sacks, WSJ, 13 Sep. 2018
  • Letting plants grow beneath the trees seemed like a squalid, lazy, weed-spreading hazard.
    — Nathanael Johnson, WIRED, 24 May 2018
  • The whole economical and squalid enterprise, just this side of a derelict’s bindle.
    — Rachel Cusk, Harper's Magazine, 27 Sep. 2023
  • Mayorkas said Friday that all migrants had been cleared from a squalid camp under a bridge in Del Rio.
    — Compiled Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 27 Sep. 2021
  • His apartment was a squalid den of decay, a mausoleum to forgotten dreams and lost hopes.
    — Adi Robertson, The Verge, 24 May 2023
  • Propped up on wooden platforms, the homes were an upgrade over the squalid sheds where farmworkers slept.
    — NBC News, 23 Sep. 2019
  • There was no hiding the squalid remnants of a slaving voyage, and Foster risked the death penalty if caught.
    — National Geographic, 16 Jan. 2020
  • That’s when their children were sent to the teeming and squalid al-Hol facility.
    — Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times, 16 Nov. 2021
  • Many of the others land in jail cells or squalid street encampments, or languish in back bedrooms.
    — Sally Satel, WSJ, 13 Mar. 2022
  • While most were decent, some of the one-star lodgings were noisy and squalid, as described by one haiku: Fleas and lice, the horse pissing next to my pillow.
    — Hiroshi Okamoto, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 July 2020
  • The story culminates in squalid violence, and the unheroic Deep State is left to clean up—which is to say, cover up—the mess.
    — Jeet Heer, New Republic, 15 July 2017
  • The Trump administration forced asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while awaiting hearings, leading to the development of squalid refugee camps along the border.
    — Maggie Astor, New York Times, 9 Sep. 2024
  • Similarly, there are laws to address squalid housing conditions.
    — Mercury News & East Bay Times Editorial, The Mercury News, 2 Aug. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'squalid.' 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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