shlub

shlub

slang A dull, dowdy, or untalented person; someone who is generally unattractive or unremarkable. From Yiddish. I'll never understand why a knockout beauty like Sarah is with a shlub like him. The tribute band, as it were, was just a bunch of shlubs in cheap costumes and makeup attempting to play KISS's greatest hits.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • schlump
  • shlump
  • schloomp
  • schlub
  • zhlub
  • zhlubby
  • schlubby
  • jerkwater town
  • that's hardly saying much
  • that's not saying much
References in periodicals archive
a mishige matzoh ball!" Then it was on to "McNakatz's Band," his kilt-and-yarmulke ode to Scottish Jews done in a home made Scottish-Yiddish accent, and "Max the Messer," which recast Bobby Darin-via-KurtWeill's slick and polished mass cult icon "Mack the Knife" as Max, a "big shlub" who works as a kosher butcher on Fairfax Avenue.
The Yiddish Are Coming: Mickey Katz, Antic-Semitism, and the Sound of Jewish Difference(1)
Pity the shlub who works 80 hours a week for six figures.
The new look of office politics
Hired to wax Andy Garcia and his crew, Buscemi's weasily, fedora-wearing shlub may not look like much but he'll turn you all into buckwheats as soon as look at you.
THE FIVE BEST; ...MOVIE HITMEN
"They never really knew what to do with my character, who was just such a shlub," he remembers.
Out in Eden
Perhaps most mystifying is that God, a shlub named Al (Michael J.
Sugar-coated 'Life' delivers giant lemon
The rifle tells all in "Male Fantasy": An obnoxious shlub thinks he's possessed of godlike powers over the female sex and embarks on an absurd odyssey during which that theory is disproved at nearly every turn.
Male Fantasy
He's been transformed from shlub to stud, a bit like Paul Rudd's character in "The Shape of Things," except that Max's mellifluous muse is no ordinary femme fatale--it's fame herself.
Break a Leg
Allen's Joe Scheffer is a divorced, middle-management shlub stuck in a dead-end job at a large pharmaceuticals company, making corporate videos promoting the latest wonder drugs (with a heart-stopping list of side-effects).
Joe Somebody. (Film Reviews)
LAST week I tweeted my displeasure at corporations that spell out their names entirely in block capitals, presumably to stand out from the poor shlubs that actually obey the laws of grammar.
The golden years shine bright with possibilities
Sooner or later, though, millions of shlubs dependent on pension checks, annuities, or monthly payouts of one kind or another will notice that something has stopped landing in the mailbox.
Slip sliding away: the mortgage crisis is only the beginning ..
It's not competing to get superpowers the way ordinary shlubs go on American Idol or The Apprentice to magically transform into pop stars or top executives.
Unreality shows: they're just a way for grown-ups to play dress up
Enjoying the image of some FBI shlubs in hindquarters gathering paper with lots of black-out, I hoped he put those files to the best literary uses.
Stefan Heym--he shouldn't have been a communist
Is the interactive media buying public better informed than we shlubs who still read newspapers?
Democratization of news and the future of democracy