1967 Listener 14 Sept. 326/2 For all its brazen sleaze, Soho is a pretty fair working model of what a city neighbourhood should be.

1975 Publishers Weekly 29 Dec. 68/2 Obviously written to cash in on ‘Mandingo’, this isn't even readable sleaze: the plot's sloppy, Gilchrist hasn't the knack for writing commercial sex, and the hero is too despicable to be seductive.

1976 National Observer (U.S.) 17 July 16 (heading) At home with the sleaze king.

1981 New Yorker 9 Mar. 104/1 These stores are vast, computerized sleaze centers, where you can buy almost anything—pills, toys, candy, liquor, stockings, pillows, and gadgetry.

1976 Telegraph (Brisbane) 3 Aug. 10/3 When I made the mistake of calling them ‘sleazy’ to their faces, their reaction was outrage. ‘Don't call me a sleaze,’ said Miss Currie.

1977 Time 28 Feb. 48/1 Oh God, red nail polish—I look like a sleaze.

1777 in Eng. Dial. Dict.

1825 J. Jennings Observ. Dial. W. Eng. 69 To sleeze,..to separate; to come apart: applied to cloth, when the warp and woof readily separate from each other.

1904 Eng. Dial. Dict. V. 513/1 Sleeze,..v. Of loosely or badly woven cloth: to separate, part asunder; to wear away; also with away.

1964 Punch 30 Dec. 986/2 Other plays, sleazing across the West End boards.

1978 W. F. Buckley Stained Glass xxii. 211 The depressing, unseasonal föhn that sleazes over Europe with dumpy barometric pressures that enervate and depress.

1978 Whig-Standard (Kingston, Ont.) 31 Mar. a6 When not thumping.., they [sc. a rock group] just kind of sleaze along, a little like Lou Reed at his best.