Definitions
primly out of date
Word origin
First appears c. 1581. Origin uncertain, probably literally "little poorly dressed woman," formed from doue, "poorly dressed woman". Possibly also related to the Scots dow, meaning to "fade".
Used in a sentence
“[...she was] a perfect saint amongst women, but so dreadfully dowdy that she reminded one of a badly bound hymn-book.”
“Miss Marina Thompson, a distant cousin of my husband's. She's rather dowdy, is she not?”
““I knew there were women-dowdies in Bengal. They come up here sometimes. But I didn't know that there were men-dowds, too.””
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Frumpy”5 letters
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