Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Dowdy |
DowdyAdjective1. Lacking in smartness or taste; "a dowdy gray outfit"; "a clean and sunny but completely dowdy room". 2. Primly out of date; "nothing so frumpish as last year's gambling game". Noun1. British Marshal of the RAF who commanded the British air defense forces that defeated the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain (1882-1970). 2. Deep-dish apple dessert covered with a rich crust. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "dowdy" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1595. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Slang in 1811 | DOWDY. A coarse, vulgar-looking woman. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: DowdySynonyms: frumpish (adj), frumpy (adj), pandowdy (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Uncleanness | Dowdy, drab, malkin, slattern, sloven, slammerkin, slammock, slummock, scrub, draggle-tail, mudlark, dust-man, sweep; beast. |
Unkempt, dowdy, draggle-tailed; uncombed. | |
Vulgarity | Rough diamond, tomboy, hoyden, cub, unlicked cub; clown; (commonalty); Goth, Vandal, Boeotian; snob, cad, gent; parvenu; frump, dowdy; slattern. |
Dowdy; slovenly; (dirty); ungenteel, shabby genteel; low, common, hoi polloi; (plebeian); uncourtly; uncivil; (discourteous); ill bred, ill mannered; underbred; ungentlemanly, ungentlemanlike; unladylike, unfeminine; wild, wild as an unbacked colt. | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Dowdy |
| English words defined with "dowdy": Dowdies, dowdily, Dowdyish ♦ frumpily, frumpishly. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "dowdy": MOPSEY. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | You are a pretty old dame, aren't you. What are you doing with a dowdy old son-of-a-bitch like me (On Golden Pond; writing credit: Ernest Thompson.) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Dowdy" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 92.11% of the time. "Dowdy" is used about 76 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 92.11% | 70 | 39,981 |
| Noun (proper) | 7.89% | 6 | 143,867 |
| Total | 100.00% | 76 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "dowdy" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Dowdy | Last name | 7,000 | 1,875 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "dowdy": rowdy-dowdy. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
dowdy | 24 |
dowdy lake | 11 |
dowdy howdy | 11 |
apple dowdy pan | 8 |
colorado dowdy lake | 5 |
dowdy robert | 5 |
dowdy ronnie | 4 |
brett dowdy | 4 |
dowdy j robert | 4 |
dowdy kevin | 4 |
colonel dowdy joe | 4 |
dowdy estate real | 3 |
dowdy ronnie trucking | 3 |
dowdy hunley | 2 |
dowdy joe | 2 |
dowdy family genealogy james r | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "dowdy"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | njeri i veshur pa shije, i veshur pa shije, i pashije (drab, flavorless, flavourless, frumpish, gaudy, inelegant, insipid, mawkish, rococo, savorless, savourless), i modës së vjetër (old fashioned, oldfangled, square-toed). (various references) | |
Arabic | مهلهل الثياب, مزدري الهيئة, زري الملبس, عتيق الزي (ancient, antiquated, antique, bygone, dated, out of date, outdated, outmoded, vintage), امرأة زرية الملابس, رث (down, dungy, heel, inherit, mangy, outworn, seedy, shabby, slipshod, threadbare, worn, worn out). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | старомоден (antiquated, archaic, corny, fossil, fusty, hunker, moldy, obsolete, old fashioned, old hat, old time, out of date, outmoded, passe, primitive, quaint, square-toed, traditional), развлечен (dowdyish, scrubby, scruffy, slatternly, unkempt), лошо облечена жена (frump). (various references) | |
Czech | staromódní (antiquated, dated, old fashioned), ošumìlý (disreputable, dowdyish, down at heel, scruffy, seedy, shabby, shoddy, threadbare), neupravený (blowzy, mussy, sloppy, undressed, unkempt, untidy, wild), neelegantní (inelegant). (various references) | |
French | démodé, sans chic, mal fagoté, inélégant. (various references) | |
German | unschick, schäbig (cheap, dingily, disreputable, mangy, mean, measly, moldy, paltry, pokily, poky, poor, raggedly, scabby, seedily, seedy, shabbily, shabby, shoddily, shoddy, sordid, stingy, tackily, tacks, tacky, threadbare, tinny). (various references) | |
Greek | κακοντυμένοσ (tacky), κακοενδεδυμένοσ, άκομψος. (various references) | |
Hebrew | מרושל בלבוש (negligee). (various references) | |
Hungarian | rosszul öltözött (frumpish, raggedy-ass, scruffy, tacky). (various references) | |
Indonesian | kebodohan (boner, ignorance, mistake), jembel. (various references) | |
Italian | trasandato (scruffy, shabby, sleazy, slipshod, slovenly, untidy), sciatto (blowzy, careless, frowzy, pig, shabby, sleazily, slipshod, sloppy, slovenly, unkempt). (various references) | |
Manx | trouise (crowd, literary garbage, rot, rubbish, slattern, sloven, trollop, trumpery; trash, trumpery; trash of person), trouisagh (slatternly, trashy), slobbagh (. sloppy, floppy, mucky, scruffy). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | owdyday.(various references) | |
Portuguese | deselegante (crude, graceless, ill-favored, ill-favoured, inelegant, shapeless, uncomely, ungainly, ungraceful, unhandsome). (various references) | |
Romanian | neîngrijit (frowzy, grubby, poky, shabby, slattern, sloppy, unkempt, untidy, weed-grown), femeie prost îmbrãcatã, femeie demodatã (frump), femeie îmbrãcatã fãrã gust, îmbrãcat fãrã gust. (various references) | |
Russian | немодный (dowdyish, unfashionable). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | loše obučen, aljkav (blowzy, grubby, littery, slatternly, slipshod, slipslop, sloppy, slovenly, unkempt). (various references) | |
Spanish | desaliñado (blowzy, disheveled, dishevelled, dowdyish, down at heel, frowzy, frumpish, messy, neglected, scruffy, slovenly, tacky, unkempt, untidy). (various references) | |
Swedish | sjaskig (blowzy, flea-bitten, grubby, scrubby, scruffy, seedy, shabby, sleazy, tattered). (various references) | |
Thai | ล้าสมัย (archaic, old-world, out-of-date, superannuated). (various references) | |
Turkish | pasaklı kadın (drab, draggletail, flea-bag, slattern, trollop, untidy woman), pasaklı (dowdyish, draggled, frowzy, gay, messy, out of trim, ratty, slatternly, slipshod, sloppy, sloven, slovenly, untidy), kılıksız (dowdyish, down heels, down the heels, draggled, frumpish, hangdog, mean, poky, ratty, seedy, shabby, sleazy, slovenly, untidy), hırpani (seedy, shabby, slatternly, sleazy, ungainly, unkempt), elmalı turta (apple pie), elmalı sufle, üstü başı dökülen kadın. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | неохайно одягнений, неохайний (chatty, frowzy, frumpish, grubby, negligent, scruffy, slapdash, slattern, slatternly, slobbery, sloven, slovenly, soppy, squalid, unclean, uncleanly, unkempt, untidy), немодний (demoded, out of fashion). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | t"i t n không lịch sự, người đ n b ăn mặc không nhã, người đ n b ăn mặc không đúng mốt, không nhã. (various references) | |
Welsh | tlodaidd (mean, poorish). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "dowdy": dowdyish. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "dowdy": pandowdy. (additional references) | |
| |
"Dowdy" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Daoudi, dawd, dawdly, dawdy, didy, Djoudi, doddy, Doddyda, dodi, Dodik, Dody, Dogdyke, doody, Dordi, Doudy, dowayo, dowd, dowdie, dowsy, dowt, Dowth, owdy. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "dowdy" (pronounced dou"dē) |
| 3 | -ou" d ē | cloudy, howdy, rowdy. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "d-d-o-w-y" | |
-2 letters: dow, odd, yod, yow. | |
-3 letters: do, od, ow, oy, wo, yo. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-d-o-w-y" | |
+2 letters: dowdily, dyewood. | |
+3 letters: dowdyish, dyewoods, pandowdy. | |
+5 letters: downplayed, downwardly. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Usage Frequency 7. Names: Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
