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 Applied to clothing, it also means out of date, in an old-fashioned, dull sort of way.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:
Two money losing companies, GameStop and AMC Entertainment, temporarily found themselves as the largest constituents of the usually dowdy Russell 2000 Value Index.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
Especially because, with this dull, dowdy current iteration dragging its cape into theaters, it already has.
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026
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. 22, 2023
It opened hundreds of stores, from fashionable neighborhoods like SoHo in New York to dowdy airports.
From New York Times ● Mar. 27, 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
Let dowdies simper, and let bumpkins stare, 240 The strolling pageant hero treads in air: Pleased, for his hour he to mankind gives law, And snores the next out on a truss of straw.
From Poetical Works by Charles Churchill
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
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
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
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
And the dowdier the ladies and the less he had to do with them the prouder were they.
From A Traitor's Wooing by Headon Hill
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
"She'll dress herself up carefully in the evening to sit at home alone with me, and go out to a big dinner party in the dowdiest gown she's got," he told me once.
From The Heavenly Twins by Madame Sarah Grand
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
She glanced with almost maliciousness at Alice, who, in the dowdiest of pale-gray dresses, with her hair rather untidy and her face destitute of color, was standing near one of the windows.
From The Rebel of the School by L. T. Meade
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
