"as seedy as a fig"

"a surge of ragged scruffy children"
"he was soiled and seedy and fragrant with gin"

"my poor ailing grandmother"
"feeling a bit indisposed today"
"you look a little peaked"
"feeling poorly"
"a sickly child"
"is unwell and can't come to work"

"a seedy district"
"the seamy side of life"
"sleazy characters hanging around casinos"
"sleazy storefronts with...dirt on the walls"
"the sordid details of his orgies stank under his very nostrils"
"the squalid atmosphere of intrigue and betrayal"