From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Sordid \Sor"did\, a. [L. sordidus, fr. sordere to be filthy or
dirty; probably akin to E. swart: cf. F. sordide. See
Swart, a.]
1. Filthy; foul; dirty. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
A sordid god; down from his hoary chin
A length of beard descends, uncombed, unclean.
--Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
2. Vile; base; gross; mean; as, vulgar, sordid mortals. "To
scorn the sordid world." --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
3. Meanly avaricious; covetous; niggardly.
[1913 Webster]
He may be old,
And yet sordid, who refuses gold. --Sir J.
Denham.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
sordid
adj 1: morally degraded; "a seedy district"; "the seamy side of
life"; "sleazy characters hanging around casinos";
"sleazy storefronts with...dirt on the walls"- Seattle
Weekly; "the sordid details of his orgies stank under his
very nostrils"- James Joyce; "the squalid atmosphere of
intrigue and betrayal" [syn: seamy, seedy, sleazy,
sordid, squalid]
2: unethical or dishonest; "dirty police officers"; "a sordid
political campaign" [syn: dirty, sordid]
3: foul and run-down and repulsive; "a flyblown bar on the edge
of town"; "a squalid overcrowded apartment in the poorest
part of town"; "squalid living conditions"; "sordid
shantytowns" [syn: flyblown, squalid, sordid]
4: meanly avaricious and mercenary; "sordid avarice"; "sordid
material interests"