frowzy
/ˈfraʊzi
/(also frowsy)
adjective (frowzier, frowziest; frowsier, frowsiest)
1Scruffy and neglected in appearance: seedy-looking doormen in frowzy uniforms...
- The lone exception is basketball, where the uniforms just hang down all unkempt and frowzy.
- In 1905, Elbert Hubbard wrote in the Leavenworth Times of Kansas that ‘The girls at a Fred Harvey place never look dowdy, frowsy, tired, slipshod or overworked.’
- And don't get me started on the frowzy little strips of bunting that many business houses feel so fully demonstrates good corporate citizenship, or the contrived costuming of employees in the same pursuit.
Synonyms
scruffy, unkempt, untidy, sloppy, messy, dishevelled, slovenly, slatternly, bedraggled, down at heel, ill-dressed, badly dressed, dowdy
North American informal raggedy
1.1Dingy and stuffy: a frowzy drinking-club...
- It's wonderful, the amount of litter they manage to accumulate in these frowsy little shops where the whole stock is worth about fifty quid.
- He had seen it lying in the window of a frowsy little junk-shop in a slummy quarter of the town (just what quarter he did not now remember) and had been stricken immediately by an overwhelming desire to possess it.
Synonyms
dingy, gloomy, dull, drab, dark, badly/poorly lit, dim;
stuffy, close, musty, stale, stagnant, stifling, suffocating, unfresh;
shabby, seedy, run down, tacky;
British frowsty, fuggy
Derivatives
frowziness
/ noun ...- The bed was so good that it tended to highlight the frowziness of the chairs and other furniture fittings.
- The question has arisen in other lands, prompted by the conduct and language and the studied physical and moral frowsiness of individuals who have identified themselves with radical movements.
- We got back a week ago quite dismal at having to leave Italy, and are slowly getting used to the frowsiness of our glorious country.
Origin
Late 17th century (originally dialect): of unknown origin.