Disreputable means having a bad reputation or not worthy of trust and respect. A disreputable business might cheat customers or sell poor quality products, so people warn their friends to stay away. A disreputable person has acted dishonestly or badly enough times that others no longer trust them.

If you have a good reputation, people trust you and respect you. But once you become disreputable, you've lost that trust through your own actions. A store that sells fake merchandise becomes disreputable. A student who constantly lies becomes disreputable among classmates.

Notice that disreputable doesn't just mean “made one mistake.” It suggests a pattern of bad behavior that has become known to others. A restaurant might become disreputable after health inspectors repeatedly find problems, not because someone once found a hair in their soup.

The opposite of disreputable is reputable, which describes someone or something known for being honest and reliable. Banks, doctors, and mechanics all want to be reputable because their success depends on people trusting them. Once a business or person becomes disreputable, rebuilding that lost reputation can take years of consistently better behavior.