Word Study
dowdy
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun dowdy has 2 senses
- dowdy(n = noun.person) baron hugh caswall tremenheere dowding, dowding, hugh dowding - British marshal of the RAF who commanded the British air defense forces that defeated the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain (1882-1970); Array is a kind of full general, general, marshal, marshall
- dowdy(n = noun.food) pandowdy - deep-dish apple dessert covered with a rich crust; Array is a kind of pastry
Adjective dowdy has 2 senses
- dowdy(s = adj.all) Array - lacking in smartness or taste; "a dowdy grey outfit"; "a clean and sunny but completely dowdy room" Derived form noun dowdiness1
- dowdy(s = adj.all) frumpish, frumpy - primly out of date; "nothing so frumpish as last year's gambling game" Derived form noun dowdiness1
OXFORD DICTIONARY
dowdy, adj. & n.
--adj. (dowdier, dowdiest)
1 (of clothes) unattractively dull; unfashionable.
2 (of a person, esp. a woman) dressed in dowdy clothes.
--n. (pl. -ies) a dowdy woman.
--adj. (dowdier, dowdiest)
1 (of clothes) unattractively dull; unfashionable.
2 (of a person, esp. a woman) dressed in dowdy clothes.
--n. (pl. -ies) a dowdy woman.
Derivative
dowdily adv. dowdiness n.
Etymology
ME dowd slut, of unkn. orig.
THESAURUS
dowdy
archaic, blowsy, bygone, dated, demode, down-at-heel, down-at-the-heels, drab, draggletailed, dull, frayed, frazzled, frowsy, frowzy, frumpish, frumpy, full of holes, holey, in rags, in shreds, in tatters, messy, old hat, old-fashioned, out-of-date, outdated, outmoded, passe, patchy, ragged, raggedy, ratty, scruffy, seedy, shabby, shoddy, slattern, sloppy, slovenly, slut, sordid, stodgy, tacky, tattered, tatty, torn, traipse, unbecoming, unfashionable, unkempt, unseemly, vintageROGET THESAURUS
dowdy
Uncleanness
N uncleanness, impurity, immundity, immundicity, impurity, defilement, contamination, defoedation, soilure, soiliness, abomination, leaven, taint, tainture, fetor, decay, putrescence, putrefaction, corruption, mold, must, mildew, dry rot, mucor, rubigo, slovenry, slovenliness, squalor, dowdy, drab, slut, malkin, slattern, sloven, slammerkin, slammock, slummock, scrub, draggle-tail, mudlark, dust-man, sweep, beast, dirt, filth, soil, slop, dust, cobweb, flue, smoke, soot, smudge, smut, grit, grime, raff, sossle, sozzle, sordes, dregs, grounds, lees, argol, sediment, settlement heeltap, dross, drossiness, mother, precipitate, scoriae, ashes, cinders, recrement, slag, scum, froth, hogwash, ditchwater, dishwater, bilgewater, rinsings, cheeseparings, sweepings, offscourings, outscourings, off scum, caput mortuum, residuum, sprue, fecula, clinker, draff, scurf, scurfiness, exuviae, morphea, fur, furfur, dandruff, tartar, riffraff, vermin, louse, flea, bug, chinch, mud, mire, quagmire, alluvium, silt, sludge, slime, slush, slosh, sposh, spawn, offal, gurry, lientery, garbage, carrion, excreta, slough, peccant humor, pus, matter, suppuration, lienteria, faeces, feces, excrement, ordure, dung, crap, shit, sewage, sewerage, muck, coprolite, guano, manure, compost, dunghill, colluvies, mixen, midden, bog, laystall, sink, privy, jakes, toilet, john, head, cess, cesspool, sump, sough, cloaca, latrines, drain, sewer, common sewer, Cloacina, dust hole, sty, pigsty, lair, den, Augean stable, sink of corruption, slum, rookery, dirty, filthy, grimy, unclean, impure, soiled, not to be handled with kid gloves, dusty, snuffy, smutty, sooty, smoky, thick, turbid, dreggy, slimy, mussy, slovenly, untidy, messy, uncleanly, unkempt, sluttish, dowdy, draggle-tailed, uncombed, unscoured, unswept, unwiped, unwashed, unstrained, unpurified, squalid, lutose, slammocky, slummocky, sozzly, nasty, coarse, foul, offensive, abominable, beastly, reeky, reechy, fetid, decayed, moldy, musty, mildewed, rusty, moth-eaten, mucid, rancid, weak, bad, gone bad, etercoral, lentiginous, touched, fusty, effete, reasty, rotten, corrupt, tainted, high, flyblown, maggoty, putrid, putrefactive, putrescent, putrefied, saprogenic, saprogenous, purulent, carious, peccant, fecal, feculent, stercoraceous, excrementitious, scurfy, scurvy, impetiginous, gory, bloody, rotting, rotten as a pear, rotten as cheese, crapulous, gross, fimetarious, fimicolous, they that touch pitch will be defiled, uncleanness, impurity, immundity, immundicity, impurity, defilement, contamination, defoedation, soilure, soiliness, abomination, leaven, taint, tainture, fetor, decay, putrescence, putrefaction, corruption, mold, must, mildew, dry rot, mucor, rubigo, slovenry, slovenliness, squalor, dowdy, drab, slut, malkin, slattern, sloven, slammerkin, slammock, slummock, scrub, draggle-tail, mudlark, dust-man, sweep, beast, dirt, filth, soil, slop, dust, cobweb, flue, smoke, soot, smudge, smut, grit, grime, raff, sossle, sozzle, sordes, dregs, grounds, lees, argol, sediment, settlement heeltap, dross, drossiness, mother, precipitate, scoriae, ashes, cinders, recrement, slag, scum, froth, hogwash, ditchwater, dishwater, bilgewater, rinsings, cheeseparings, sweepings, offscourings, outscourings, off scum, caput mortuum, residuum, sprue, fecula, clinker, draff, scurf, scurfiness, exuviae, morphea, fur, furfur, dandruff, tartar, riffraff, vermin, louse, flea, bug, chinch, mud, mire, quagmire, alluvium, silt, sludge, slime, slush, slosh, sposh, spawn, offal, gurry, lientery, garbage, carrion, excreta, slough, peccant humor, pus, matter, suppuration, lienteria, faeces, feces, excrement, ordure, dung, crap, shit, sewage, sewerage, muck, coprolite, guano, manure, compost, dunghill, colluvies, mixen, midden, bog, laystall, sink, privy, jakes, toilet, john, head, cess, cesspool, sump, sough, cloaca, latrines, drain, sewer, common sewer, Cloacina, dust hole, sty, pigsty, lair, den, Augean stable, sink of corruption, slum, rookery, dirty, filthy, grimy, unclean, impure, soiled, not to be handled with kid gloves, dusty, snuffy, smutty, sooty, smoky, thick, turbid, dreggy, slimy, mussy, slovenly, untidy, messy, uncleanly, unkempt, sluttish, dowdy, draggle-tailed, uncombed, unscoured, unswept, unwiped, unwashed, unstrained, unpurified, squalid, lutose, slammocky, slummocky, sozzly, nasty, coarse, foul, offensive, abominable, beastly, reeky, reechy, fetid, decayed, moldy, musty, mildewed, rusty, moth-eaten, mucid, rancid, weak, bad, gone bad, etercoral, lentiginous, touched, fusty, effete, reasty, rotten, corrupt, tainted, high, flyblown, maggoty, putrid, putrefactive, putrescent, putrefied, saprogenic, saprogenous, purulent, carious, peccant, fecal, feculent, stercoraceous, excrementitious, scurfy, scurvy, impetiginous, gory, bloody, rotting, rotten as a pear, rotten as cheese, crapulous, gross, fimetarious, fimicolous, they that touch pitch will be defiled.Vulgarity
N vulgarity, vulgarism, barbarism, Vandalism, Gothicism, mauvis gout, bad taste, gaucherie, awkwardness, want of tact, ill-breeding, courseness, indecorum, misbehavior, lowness, homeliness, low life, mauvais ton, rusticity, boorishness, brutality, rowdyism, blackguardism, ribaldry, slang, bad joke, mauvais plaisanterie, gaudiness, tawdriness, false ornament, finery, frippery, trickery, tinsel, gewgaw, clinquant, baroque, rococo, rough diamond, tomboy, hoyden, cub, unlicked cub, clown, Goth, Vandal, Boeotian, snob, cad, gent, parvenu, frump, dowdy, slattern, in bad taste vulgar, unrefined, coarse, indecorous, ribald, gross, unseemly, unbeseeming, unpresentable, contra bonos mores, ungraceful, dowdy, slovenly, ungenteel, shabby genteel, low, common, hoi polloi, uncourtly, uncivil, ill bred, ill mannered, underbred, ungentlemanly, ungentlemanlike, unladylike, unfeminine, wild, wild as an unbacked colt, untutored, unschooled (ignorant), unkempt, uncombed, untamed, unlicked, unpolished, uncouth, plebeian, incondite, heavy, rude, awkward, homely, homespun, home bred, provincial, countrified, rustic, boorish, clownish, savage, brutish, blackguard, rowdy, snobbish, barbarous, barbaric, Gothic, unclassical, doggerel, heathenish, tramontane, outlandish, uncultivated, Bohemian, obsolete, unfashionable, newfangled, odd, particular, affected, meretricious, extravagant, monstrous, horrid, shocking, gaudy, tawdry, overornamented, baroque, rococo, bedizened, tricked out, gingerbread, obtrusive, vulgarity, vulgarism, barbarism, Vandalism, Gothicism, mauvis gout, bad taste, gaucherie, awkwardness, want of tact, ill-breeding, courseness, indecorum, misbehavior, lowness, homeliness, low life, mauvais ton, rusticity, boorishness, brutality, rowdyism, blackguardism, ribaldry, slang, bad joke, mauvais plaisanterie, gaudiness, tawdriness, false ornament, finery, frippery, trickery, tinsel, gewgaw, clinquant, baroque, rococo, rough diamond, tomboy, hoyden, cub, unlicked cub, clown, Goth, Vandal, Boeotian, snob, cad, gent, parvenu, frump, dowdy, slattern, in bad taste vulgar, unrefined, coarse, indecorous, ribald, gross, unseemly, unbeseeming, unpresentable, contra bonos mores, ungraceful, dowdy, slovenly, ungenteel, shabby genteel, low, common, hoi polloi, uncourtly, uncivil, ill bred, ill mannered, underbred, ungentlemanly, ungentlemanlike, unladylike, unfeminine, wild, wild as an unbacked colt, untutored, unschooled (ignorant), unkempt, uncombed, untamed, unlicked, unpolished, uncouth, plebeian, incondite, heavy, rude, awkward, homely, homespun, home bred, provincial, countrified, rustic, boorish, clownish, savage, brutish, blackguard, rowdy, snobbish, barbarous, barbaric, Gothic, unclassical, doggerel, heathenish, tramontane, outlandish, uncultivated, Bohemian, obsolete, unfashionable, newfangled, odd, particular, affected, meretricious, extravagant, monstrous, horrid, shocking, gaudy, tawdry, overornamented, baroque, rococo, bedizened, tricked out, gingerbread, obtrusive.
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