How to Use squalid in a Sentence

squalid

adjective
  • 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
  • Soon, the squalid sea water that runs beneath Hong Kong’s streets sloshed around his knees.
    Suzanne Sataline, Quartz, 30 Nov. 2019
  • 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
  • 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
  • In the midst of a squalid surrender, one young general had spoken up for France.
    Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2021
  • 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
  • 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
  • Green was there, too, for Qudrat Wardak, the baby with a bad heart who came to Indianapolis from a squalid Afghan refugee camp.
    The Indianapolis Star, 13 Sep. 2022
  • Over half a million people have fled their homes in just the past two months, mostly into the squalid camps that have sprung up around Goma.
    Declan Walsh Arlette Bashizi, New York Times, 17 Dec. 2023
  • That meant some rough times in squalid conditions, and coming under fire.
    Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 18 Mar. 2023
  • Close to a million Rohingya live in squalid camps in Bangladesh, across the border from their native villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
    Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 10 Mar. 2023
  • Thousands of those people are now waiting in squalid border camps.
    Houston Chronicle, 5 Dec. 2019
  • Fans were going to games in decades-old stadiums with hard wooden seats and squalid bathrooms.
    Bruce Schoenfeld Robert Fass Anna Diamond David Mason, New York Times, 4 May 2024
  • Abu Hassan had lost his worldly possessions and was living in a squalid camp.
    Anand Gopal, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2024
  • Many said the housing units are cramped and squalid, with cockroaches scuttling across the floor and a briny water supply that caused rashes.
    Anna Schecter, NBC News, 10 Oct. 2023
  • The world of Destiny is not depressing, macabre, boring, cruel, or squalid.
    Alan Henry, Wired, 9 Sep. 2021
  • Many people have been living here for months in squalid conditions.
    ABC News, 14 May 2023
  • In short: the rental payments of residents who lived in squalid conditions for years were going to repay a loan.
    Ko Lyn Cheang, The Indianapolis Star, 22 July 2021
  • Her investigations lead her through the squalid suburbs of a Chinese town and expose a world with no mercy for the poor or weak.
    Jenny S. Li, Variety, 15 June 2024
  • The family was living in squalid conditions without food and water.
    Erin Clack, Peoplemag, 5 May 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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