mousy
/ˈmaʊsi
/(also mousey)
adjective (mousier, mousiest)
1Of or like a mouse: a mousy smell...
- Another much-discussed microbiological fault, which can cause a wine to smell mousy, may be caused by yeasts of the Brettanomyces genus, closely related to Dekkera.
- Begin inventory of masculine eyes: shy, leaky, unblinking, mousy, grateful, menacing, proprietary, polite.
- First, there are just noises; little, mousy, twitchy noises.
1.1(Of hair) of a dull light brown colour.He always made her feel so plain, with her mousy brown hair and dull gray eyes, her light skin that was so frail it sunburned in little under ten minutes in the heat....
- The second was aged 14 or 15, five foot five inches tall, with short mousy to light brown hair, wearing a blue track suit.
- The man is described as white, aged 23-25 years-old, 5ft 8ins tall, with a goatee beard and short brown mousy hair.
Synonyms
lightish brown, brownish, brownish-grey, dun-coloured;
colourless, neutral, drab, dull, lacklustre
1.2(Of a person) shy, timid, and quiet: he had a small mousy wife...
- At the beginning of the film, she is a rather mousy secretary, given to wearing neutral colors and a bulky, shapeless winter coat.
- Two sisters, one a 15-year-old knockout, the other two years younger, overweight and mousy, are on holidays with their parents.
- Michelle Monteith, baby-voiced and appropriately mousy as Laura in the first act, manages the transformation in the second with great believability.
Synonyms
timid, quiet, meek, fearful, timorous, shy, self-effacing, diffident, ineffectual, unassertive, unconfident, unforthcoming, reticent, shrinking, hesitant, withdrawn, introverted, introvert, unobtrusive
Derivatives
mousily
mousiness
- Samuel Owen's Winston Smith strikes a nice balance between pathetic mousiness and nobility.
- Brettanomyces yeasts impart an unpleasant mousiness to the finished wine that can make it completely undrinkable.
- Whoever plays Leo Frank faces the awesome task of having to be winning without obvious charm, manly despite his mousiness, and a star performer in a role that, except for its length, has none of the splashy attributes of a star vehicle.
- Prince Valiant
- Prince William Sound
- princewood
- prince-worthy
- principal
- principal axis
- principal boy
- principal challenge
- principal component
- principal component analysis
- principal diagonal
- principal girl
- principal ideal
- principal ideal ring
- principal in the first degree
- principal in the second degree
- principality
- principally
- principalness
- principal normal
- principal parts
- principal plane
- principal point
- principal quantum number
- principal ray