frumpy
adjUK /ˈfɹʌm.pɪ/ · US /ˈfɹʌm.pi/
Etymology Either from frump or from Middle English frumple + -y.
1
Dowdy, unkempt, or unfashionable.
- She came to the door in a frumpy housedress and bedroom slippers.
- 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?”2015 July 23, Siobhan Roberts, “John Horton Conway: the world’s most charismatic mathematician”, in The Guardian:
2
Dated Bad-tempered.
- Derived terms
- unfrumpy
- Related terms
- frump, frumpily, frumpiness