drabness

On my earlier visits to East Berlin, I was always told that the contrast between the western and eastern sectors was artificial, and that I must go farther east to see real signs of growth in the D.D.R. This I did, early this summer; but the pattern of grey drabness is the same.

Germany: The Anatomy of a Crisis 1961

If the editor knows that the drabness is intentional, then it’s a sign of the colorist’s ability to set the mood, NOT incompetence.

Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » An easy mistake for prospective novelists and comic book writers… 2009

If the editor knows that the drabness is intentional, then it’s a sign of the colorist’s ability to set the mood, NOT incompetence.

Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » 2009 » November » 24 2009

If the editor knows that the drabness is intentional, then it’s a sign of the colorist’s ability to set the mood, NOT incompetence.

Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » 2009 » November 2009

Georgian prose, raised from early Georgian "drabness" by the efforts of Johnson, Gibbon, and Burke, but not proceeding to the extremes of any of the three, was still the academic standard; but when a certain freedom on the one side, and a certain grace and colour on the other, were being taken from the new experiments of nineteenth-century prose proper.

Matthew Arnold George Saintsbury 1889

The subway goes aboveground, and New York in all its drabness slides past the window.

Miracles, Inc. T.J. Forrester 2011

On the windowsill flower arrangements added color to the drabness of the room.

Miracles, Inc. T.J. Forrester 2011

Spread the custard over the fruit and then garnish with nuts and mint to spruce up the drabness if you like.

july fourth official vegan post « paper fruit 2009

I admire Indian women here who have lived in this nation for decades who still wear the beautiful tunic suits or saris of their homeland; a beacon of loveliness in a Maoist landscape; what orwell called a 'tyranny of drabness'. i also admire the middle Eastern women in my neighbourhood always so elegant in their scarves and flowing robes, so beautifully put together and ready for anything!

Alfred Augustus Glendening 1861-1903 2009

The building's massing is the only thing that rescues it from complete monolithic drabness.

Keeping 'Home' Out of Sight Dana Rubinstein 2011