drab
A fabric, usually of thick cotton or wool, having a dull brownish yellow, dull grey,…A fabric, usually of thick cotton or wool, having a dull brownish yellow, dull grey, or dun colour.
» This color palette is rather drab.
Diese Farbpalette ist recht öde.
Meaning
10 senses(also, attributive, countable, uncountable)A fabric, usually of thick cotton or wool, having a dull brownish yellow, dull grey, or dun colour.
(also, attributive, countable, uncountable)The color of this fabric.
(also, attributive, countable, uncountable)Often in the plural form drabs: apparel, especially trousers, made from this fabric.
(also, attributive, broadly, countable, uncountable)A dull or uninteresting appearance or situation, unremarkable.
(also, attributive, dated)A dirty or untidy woman; a slattern.
(also, attributive, dated)A promiscuous woman, a slut; a prostitute.
проститу́ткаprostitútka
(also, attributive)A small amount, especially of money.
(also, attributive)A box used in a saltworks for holding the salt when taken out of the boiling pans.
(also, attributive, uncountable)An instance of a transgender or non-binary person presenting as the gender corresponding to their sex assigned at birth instead of that corresponding to their internal gender identity (most commonly a trans woman dressed as a man).
(also, attributive, obsolete, slang, uncountable)Poison.
- a dull greyish to yellowish or light olive brown
Examples
10 sentencesThis color palette is rather drab.
deDiese Farbpalette ist recht öde. — Yorwba
This colour palette is rather drab.
deDiese Farbpalette ist recht öde. — Yorwba
The guests arrived in dribs and drabs.
This morning, the world is grey and drab.
ruЭтим утром мир серый и унылый. — Wezel
deDie Welt heute Morgen ist grau in grau. — raggione
The world is grey and drab this morning.
deDie Welt heute Morgen ist grau in grau. — raggione
Translations
3 languagesBy meaning 1
Origin
Probably from Middle French and Old French drap (“cloth”), either: The origin of the nounProbably from Middle French and Old French drap (“cloth”), either:
The origin of the noun is uncertain; compare Middle English drabelen, drablen, draplen (“to soil; make dirty; to drag on the ground or through mud”), and Low German drabbe (“dirt, mud”), drabbeln (“to soil”), and Old Norse drabba (“to make drab; make dirty”), the latter three ultimately from Proto-Germanic *drepaną (“to hit, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreb- (“to crush, grind; to kill”). The word is also likely to be related to Dutch drab (“dregs, sediment”), Irish drabog, Scottish Gaelic drabag (“dirty woman; slattern”).
Probably related to drop (“small mass of liquid”).
Alteration of drag, possibly via the folk-etymological backronym "DRessed As a Girl" (with boy replacing girl).
Of Romany origin.
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Forms
plural: drabsSynonyms
239 synonymsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable