frumpy

comparative frumpier · superlative frumpiest

1. Dowdy, unkempt, or unfashionable.

   She came to the door in a frumpy housedress and bedroom slippers.

   2 more examples

   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

   Even after Bad Moon, I never felt like I had a place in the New York music scene. Artists I had no trouble conversing with, but I had no idea how to talk to misucians. I felt confused about how I “should” look, and I felt frumpy and nerdy a lot of the time. I also had no confidence, really.

   2015, Kim Gordon, chapter 24, in Carrie Thornton, editor, Girl in a Band, New York: Dey st., →ISBN, page 148

2. datedBad-tempered.