frowsy

adjective

frow·sy ˈfrau̇-zē

variants or frowzy

frowsier or frowzier; frowziest

Synonyms of frowsy next

: musty, stale

a frowsy smell of stale beer and stale smoke—

W. S. Maugham

: having a slovenly or uncared-for appearance

a couple of frowsy stuffed chairs—

R. M. Williams

Did you know?

The exact origins of frowsy are perhaps lost in an old, frowsy book somewhere, but some etymologists have speculated that frowsy (also spelled frowzy) shares a common ancestor with the younger, chiefly British, word frowsty, a synonym of frowsy in both its senses. That ancestor could be the Old French word frouste, meaning "ruinous" or "decayed," or the now-obsolete English word frough or frow, meaning "brittle" or "fragile." An early print example of frowsy can be found in Thomas Otway's 1681 comedy The Souldier's Fortune, wherein the character Beau refers to another character as "a frouzy Fellmonger."

Examples of frowsy in a Sentence

sported a threadbare wardrobe and frowsy hair the abandoned house was dank and frowsy

Recent Examples on the Web Before the current renovation of the franchised hotels, the rooms looked as if they were stuck in a fussy, frowsy 1980s floral rut. —

BostonGlobe.com, 3 Oct. 2019

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'frowsy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.