Sloppy means careless and untidy, or too wet and loose. Sloppy work, a sloppy mixture, sloppy handwriting.
Of work it is a real criticism meaning done without care, and sloppy thinking is the version of it applied to arguments. Of a mixture it means too wet: the batter is sloppy. Of clothes it means loose and comfortable, which is neutral or approving: a sloppy jumper. Note sloppy seconds, which is coarse; and that sloppy comes from slop and carries the image of something that will not hold its shape.
1adjectivesloppyCareless and untidy.
“His homework was sloppy, full of crossings-out and spelling mistakes.”
synonyms: careless, slapdash
2adjectivewetToo wet and loose.
“Add less water, or the cement will be too sloppy to hold the bricks.”
sloppy is a quality of carelessness or wetness.
Proto-Indo-European
*slewbʰ-
Proto-Germanic
*slup-
Old English
*slop
Middle English
slop
English
slop
English, today
sloppy
Built from
From slop + -y. slop comes from Middle English slop, from Old English slop, from Proto-Germanic slup-, from Proto-Indo-European slewbʰ-. From Middle English slop, sloppe, slope, from Old English slop (found in oferslop (“an outergarment, surplice”)). Cognate with Icelandic sloppur (“a long, loose gown”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA