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 Applied to clothing, it also means out of date, in an old-fashioned, dull sort of way.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 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
La Chaumiere is not, however, a thatched cottage, but a prosaic, dowdy building like other Toronto buildings.
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
The ladies dazzle him; he thinks of "our London dowdies" and shudders; but alas! he cannot talk to them.
From The Eulogy of Richard Jefferies by Besant, Walter, Sir
I hear she went to the Opera on Monday night, and told Tommy Rufford at supper that, as far as she could see, London Society was entirely made up of dowdies and dandies. lord goring.
From An Ideal Husband by Wilde, Oscar
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
Investors are finding refuge in dowdier names that have been ignored of late, like peanut butter maker J.M.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 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
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
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
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 Warner, Anna Bartlett
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 Dawson, Sarah Morgan
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.
