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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

a frowsy family living in wretched poverty the abandoned house was dank and frowsy and barely fit for human habitation

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 example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'frowsy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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