Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • See frowzy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having a dingy, neglected, and scruffy appearance.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective negligent of neatness especially in dress and person; habitually dirty and unkempt

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Max Bedacht was not the kind of frowsy, self-assertive Communist most Congressmen were accustomed to encountering.

    On being called a bigot and/or racist 2010

  • And the way the woman referred to Ermina implied there was no love lost between this frowsy neighbor in her faded tracksuit and Ermina Blaylock.

    Fatal Error J.A. Jance 2011

  • After this outburst the man slept gently on, while the little girl still held the parasol aloft and looked down with a great wonder at the frowsy, unkempt creature, trying to reconcile it with the little part of life that she knew.

    THE HOBO AND THE FAIRY 2010

  • All these were blotted out by a grotesque and terrible nightmare brood — frowsy, shuffling creatures from the pavements of Whitechapel, gin-bloated hags of the stews, and all the vast hell's following of harpies, vile-mouthed and filthy, that under the guise of monstrous female form prey upon sailors, the scrapings of the ports, the scum and slime of the human pit.

    Chapter 1 2010

  • One was a frowsy fat fellow with the features of a slug—a slug that wore a derby and a cheap suit two sizes too small.

    What Would Philip Marlowe Do Joshua Michael Stewart 2011

  • And the way the woman referred to Ermina implied there was no love lost between this frowsy neighbor in her faded tracksuit and Ermina Blaylock.

    Fatal Error J.A. Jance 2011

  • Although the Blairs never came close, not that they had the opportunity, to committing the upholstery crimes of a Saddam Hussein, their frowsy London interiors, furiously draped, chandeliered, patterned and cluttered, seemed to hint at something stranger than decorative idiosyncrasy.

    What's in worse taste – Cameron's photographer or Blair's house? Catherine Bennett 2010

  • Mr.R. is not alarmed, but delighted, when she slips into his quarters on a frowsy Friday morning, eyes bright, ribbons of yarn in her wavy hair, plaid micro mini, no bra, nipples pushing the taut polyester.

    The The Three Sisters 2009

  • Consider a few of the most viral stories in the US media the past several weeks: Britain's Got Talent frowsy-haired singing phenom Susan Boyle, the toned arms and zeitgeist fashion sense of Michelle Obama, and Bo, the bouncy First Puppy.

    Susan Moeller: Media Literacy 101: Of Susan Boyle, Michelle's Arms and Bo the Dog 2009

  • Mr.R. is not alarmed, but delighted, when she slips into his quarters on a frowsy Friday morning, eyes bright, ribbons of yarn in her wavy hair, plaid micro mini, no bra, nipples pushing the taut polyester.

    The The Three Sisters Tara M. M. Larkin 2009

Comments

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  • The frowsy shadows of a stubble beard lay on his jaw and throat.

    - Harold Frederic, The Damnation of Theron Ware, ch. 31

    August 8, 2008

  • "The chief of staff's normally impeccable office had become a frowsy litter of coffee cups, cigarette butts, carbines and musette bags."

    - Frank Gibney, 'Help Seemed Far Away', Time, 9 July 1946.

    November 15, 2008

  • What's a musette bag?

    November 16, 2008

  • Well, I'm not sure how you'd end up finding one in a chief of staff's office, but in my world a musette can be a kind of bagpipe and thus a musette bag would be the air sack that forms the all-essential bellows.

    November 16, 2008

  • Then again, the endlessly surprising wikipedia proposes this: "A buttbag (a.k.a musette or haversack) is a bag used in the armies in WWI and WWII and is still used today. The name "buttbag" is a fancy word for the bag these days because it now has a shoulder strap instead and often when walking it is over the buttocks. That kind is now used in the Royal Canadian Air Cadets for camps."

    November 16, 2008