frumpy

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English

Etymology

Either from frump or from Middle English frumple + -y.

Pronunciation

Adjective

frumpy (comparative frumpier, superlative frumpiest)

  1. Dowdy, unkempt, or unfashionable.
    She came to the door in a frumpy housedress and bedroom slippers.
    • July 23 2005, Siobhan Roberts, “John Horton Conway: the world’s most charismatic mathematician”, in The Guardian:
      Although still young at heart and head, he looks more and more like his old friend Archimedes, increasingly bearded and increasingly grey, with an otherworldly mien – a look that should earn him a spot in the online quiz featuring portraits of frumpy old men under the rubric “Prof or Hobo?”
  2. (dated) Bad-tempered.

Translations