frump
Americannoun
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a person who is dowdy, drab, and unattractive.
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a dull, old-fashioned person.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of frump
First recorded in 1545–55; origin uncertain
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.
The 38 outfits designed for Diana by William Ivey Long dramatized how she transformed herself from kindergarten teacher to royal frump to executive princess to international fashion plate far better than the writers did.
From New York Times • Dec. 30, 2021
Bean duck boots, largely vertical hair that he says “looks like rats nested on my scalp,” and thick-framed Le Corbusier glasses purchased in Paris that are somewhat at war with the home-office frump.
From Washington Post • Oct. 27, 2017
Veronica, by contrast, was a frump of “buzzing ugliness,” who lived in a dingy one-bedroom with six Siamese cats.
From The New Yorker • Nov. 9, 2015
Even French couture can’t rescue my frump, and my notion of hunting is based on true fables about failure.
From Salon • Jan. 31, 2014
As be did this, another arrow came whirr and frump, but this one buried all except its feathers in the grass, and stayed still, as if it had never moved.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
