dowdy
1 Americanadjective
-
not stylish; drab; old-fashioned.
Why do you always wear those dowdy old dresses?
- Synonyms:
- frumpy
- Antonyms:
- stylish, fashionable
-
not neat or tidy; shabby.
noun
noun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of dowdy1
1300–50; Middle English doude unattractive woman (of uncertain origin) + -y 1 or -y 2
Origin of dowdy2
First recorded in 1935–40; short form
Explanation
Someone dowdy dresses badly and has a shabby, unstylish appearance. If you can’t remember the last time you went shopping, beware, you may be dowdy. People tend to use the word dowdy mostly to describe women, in particular older women. In addition, it not only means shabbily dressed, but also relates specifically to the idea of style, or rather the lack of it. Applied to clothing, it also means out of date, in an old-fashioned, dull sort of way. Wild 1970s-style love beads may be out of style, but they can never be called dowdy! A sensible gray tweed skirt or the person wearing it? Most likely dowdy!
Vocabulary lists containing dowdy
The Picture of Dorian Gray
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Spy School
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Howl's Moving Castle
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Especially because, with this dull, dowdy current iteration dragging its cape into theaters, it already has.
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026
In 2006, Geely showed up at the Detroit auto show with a dowdy sedan it hoped to sell in the U.S. within two years for less than $10,000.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
She wore dowdy skirts with equally drab cardigans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2024
The character of Dame Edna began as a dowdy Mrs. Norm Everage who first took to the stage in Humphries’ hometown of Melbourne in the mid-1950s.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 21, 2023
Before he had opened than, he might have been a stuffed owl, a dowdy bundle of feathers.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
The actress dowdies up her portrayal with a glumly unsmiling demeanor and the flat, poignantly cynical vocal delivery of the nerd who’s smarter — and more annoying — than everyone else in the room.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 20, 2016
Julie Andrews, Carol Channing, Ann Margret, Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave and Raquel Welch are the other distinguished dowdies, but it's not really their fault.
From Time Magazine Archive
Lady Howard, indeed! why, do you think I'd wear one of her dowdies?
From Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Burney, Fanny
Even if they try to economize, aren't they always taunted with being dowdies?
From A House-Party Don Gesualdo and A Rainy June by Ouida
Dainty-draped dames, or duffel-skirted dowdies, They who in rudeness thus their spite would slake, Have plainly head of goose, and heart of snake!
From Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, May 27, 1893 by Burnand, F. C. (Francis Cowley), Sir
Investors are finding refuge in dowdier sectors such as consumer staples.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
It remains to be seen whether Americans will be more willing to wear dowdier, less comfortable but more effective masks to protect themselves and others.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 27, 2020
It occupies a purpose-built new building, a great whorl of glass and golden stone, a few hundred yards from the PPE philosophers’ dowdier premises.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 23, 2017
“Their locations, their decor, their approach, has been one of the dowdier of the dowdy in the past,” Zietsma said.
From Washington Post ● May 6, 2016
And the dowdier the ladies and the less he had to do with them the prouder were they.
From A Traitor's Wooing by Hill, Headon
It was arguably the dowdiest of Britain’s major charities — its highest-profile patron has long been Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth’s daughter.
From New York Times ● Jul. 14, 2018
Even in a down economy there's no shortage of potential buyers for even the dowdiest of franchises.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 17, 2010
I should be obliged if I could have leave from next Tuesday, as otherwise I shall not be able to attend the sales, and my Sam Browne is quite the dowdiest in tho whole battalion.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, January 31, 1917 by Various
The first-class waiting-room is dull to a fearful degree, and furnished in the dowdiest style of economy.
From Rides on Railways by Sidney, Samuel
“She is the dowdiest thing I ever saw.”
From Ruth Fielding Down in Dixie Great Times in the Land of Cotton by Emerson, Alice B.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
