dingy

[ din-jee ]

See synonyms for: dingy dingily dinginess on Thesaurus.com

adjective,din·gi·er, din·gi·est.

of a dark, dull, or dirty color or aspect; lacking brightness or freshness.
shabby; dismal.

Origin of dingy

First recorded in 1730–40; origin uncertain

Other words from dingy

din·gi·ly, adverb
din·gi·ness, noun

Words that may be confused with dingy

dinghy, dingy

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use dingy in a sentence

It’s the way the guard talks to you when you visit, and how you’re herded single file through dingy corridors to pay too much for microwave concessions.
'You Have One Minute Remaining.' Why I'll Always Drop Everything to Answer My Brother's Calls From Prison | Reuben Jonathan Miller | February 16, 2021 | Time
He had an aide track the poster down to a dingy bookstore in Hollywood and fly it back to the East Coast courtroom in time for closing arguments.
Mark B. Sandground Sr., Machiavellian divorce lawyer, dies at 88 | Bart Barnes | January 11, 2021 | Washington Post
They are not reddish: they are brown, to which grease and dinginess add not a little.
Left on Labrador | Charles Asbury Stephens
It is another Arrangement in Black in which critics could then discover but dinginess and dirt.
The Life of James McNeill Whistler | Elizabeth Robins Pennell
But this dungeon had ample compensations for its darkness and dinginess.
Capturing a Locomotive | William Pittenger

Despite the dinginess of his costume, Mr. Dootleby was a handsome old man, and he looked very out of place on the Bowery.
Tin-Types Taken in the Streets of New York | Lemuel Ely Quigg
There is something cheery in its very dinginess, and something free and elfin in its very insignificance.
The Wisdom of Father Brown | G. K. Chesterton

British Dictionary definitions for dingy

dingy

/ (ˈdɪndʒɪ) /

adjective-gier or -giest

lacking light or brightness; drab
dirty; discoloured

Origin of dingy

C18: perhaps from an earlier dialect word related to Old English dynge dung

Derived forms of dingy

dingily, adverb
dinginess, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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