mousy

or mous·ey

[ mou-see, -zee ]

adjective

, mous·i·er, mous·i·est.

1. resembling or suggesting a mouse, as in color or odor.
2. drab and colorless.
3. meek; timid:

   A drill sergeant can't be mousy!

   Synonyms: timorous, bashful, shy, fearful

4. quiet; noiseless:

   a mousy tread.

5. infested with mice. mouse.

mousy

/ ˈmaʊsɪ /

adjective

1. resembling a mouse, esp in having a light brown or greyish hair colour
2. shy or ineffectual

   a mousy little woman

3. infested with mice

Derived Forms

• ˈmousiness, noun
• ˈmousily, adverb

Other Words From

• mousi·ly adverb
• mousi·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of mousy¹

First recorded in 1805–15; mouse + -y ¹

Example Sentences

One would be telling stories, some were mousy and quiet, one would be holding on to the big aluminum olla of spaghetti.

From Eater

Been dying to see that powerful sexual masochist woo and whip that mousy college student?

From The Daily Beast

Gaga played a mousy employee at the Apple Genius bar, who West trick into appearing on the show as a guest.

From The Daily Beast

He will work with as much zeal to snare a mousy girl as to seduce a beauty queen.

From The Daily Beast

She wore a green blazer, round glasses and her mousy brown hair in a mousse-less blob.

From The Daily Beast

She was a good-looking woman of no particularly identifiable age, who'd taken care to make herself mousy.

From The Daily Beast

They were kept on plates on sideboards in the sun, or thrust into mousy cupboards.

From Project Gutenberg

Baby dear, only look at it wid him pitty, pitty eyes, and him tongue out of his mousy!

From Project Gutenberg

But after a little the small mousy one's curiosity overcame her diffidence.

From Project Gutenberg

After a bit we could make out the doctor's short-tailed, mousy mare and him powdering along at a sort of hand gallop.

From Project Gutenberg

And those puny, little, mousy women stare and talk about me, because theah's a little meat on mah cahcass.

From Project Gutenberg