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
-
dowdies
plural
noun
-
dowdies
plural
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 Applied to clothing, it also means out of date, in an old-fashioned, dull sort of way.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:
The stocks powering them are neither dowdy bargains nor typical of a developing country.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
Especially because, with this dull, dowdy current iteration dragging its cape into theaters, it already has.
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026
She wore dowdy skirts with equally drab cardigans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2024
The priest, Jean-Daniel Lafontant, had come from Haiti to help reopen the House of World Cultures, Berlin’s distinguished but dowdy center for non-European arts and ideas.
From New York Times ● Sep. 4, 2023
But this part of the city is no longer flat, dowdy, shabby-genteel.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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
I know but two duchesses in this wide world who are not dowdies, and one of them is an American.
From Parrot & Co. by Harold MacGrath
Half of them will be in gray and half of them in brown, and a few old dowdies will perhaps be in black.
From The Rebel of the School by L. T. Meade
Dowdies, dowdies won't do for European courts, Paris especially.
From Women of America Woman: In all ages and in all countries Vol. 10 (of 10) by John Rouse Larus
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
After more than a decade of celebrity glitz and lavishly underwritten partying, Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner is shaping up to be a slimmed-down, more sober, slightly dowdier affair.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 26, 2017
Her ’60s references were the austere, dowdier ones: Jackie Kennedy in black couture silk for a visit to the Vatican rather than Twiggy stick figures.
From New York Times ● Sep. 21, 2012
Out at elbows, out at toes, Out at knees, the urchin goes: Still he laughs, and still he grows Rowdier, dowdier, I suppose.
From The Nursery, March 1873, Vol. XIII. A Monthly Magazine for Youngest People by Various
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
This carriage was a very fine one, and in it sat three of the ugliest, dowdiest, worst dressed females I ever saw.
From A Confederate Girl's Diary by Sarah Morgan Dawson
This night the actors came on the stage in more—or less—than ordinary dress; as men look when they have put on their dowdiest, for bad weather or dirty work: and these men wore their hats.
From Tired Church Members by Anna Bartlett Warner
“She is the dowdiest thing I ever saw.”
From Ruth Fielding Down in Dixie Great Times in the Land of Cotton by Alice B. Emerson
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.
