Meaning

1 senses

  1. A plain or shabby person.

More definitions
  • deep-dish apple dessert covered with a rich crust
  • British marshal of the RAF who commanded the British air defense forces that defeated the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain (1882-1970)

Examples

1 sentences

  1. Her clothes were clean but dowdy.

    ruЕё одежда была чистой, но безвкусной. — odexed

    farinello · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Origin

First appears c. 1581. Origin uncertain, probably literally "little poorly dressed woman,"

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".

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: dowdies

Synonyms

4 synonyms
Close in meaning
  • deep-dish apple dessert covered with a rich crust:pandowdy
  • British marshal of the RAF who commanded the British air defense forces that defeated the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain (1882-1970):DowdingHugh DowdingBaron Hugh Caswall Tremenheere Dowding

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
doveB2dovetaildowdownA1

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

dowdy — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto