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Glite Dictionary
to look like a frump

to look like a frump

8.5
To appear old-fashioned and messy in your clothes
  • idiom
  • Offensive
translation icon : parecer desaliñado
  • If she wears that old dress, she will look like a frump at the party.

Examples

  • Wearing mismatched clothes can make anyone look like a frump in a fashionable crowd.

  • And I'll look like a frump next to all his chic clientele.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • He didn't want to look like a frump, so he chose a stylish outfit for the event.

Synonyms

to look unkempt
vsto look like a frump
1 4.5

To seem messy because your clothes or hair are not neat

focuses on unfashionable dress and style rather than general messiness
to be a frump
vsto look like a frump
  • Offensive
9.1

Dress or behave in a dull, old-fashioned way

appears unfashionable in outward style and often seems sloppy

Antonyms

stylish
85 2.0

Clothes or rooms that look fashionable and attractive

chic
57 3.5

Elegant and fashionable in a simple, modern way

How Unfashionable

to look like a frump
  • Offensive
8.5
dowdy
6 7.1
plain
50 2.5
stylish
85 2.0

Surface Forms

look like a frump infinitive
looked like a frump past
looked like a frump past participle
looking like a frump present participle
looks like a frump third person singular

Morphology

look + like + a + frump

The meaning is directly compositional: 'look' = appear, 'like' = similar to, and 'frump' = an unfashionable person, so 'look like a frump' straightforwardly means 'appear unfashionable.' This follows a common simile/comparative construction found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words (including 'frump') will be able to derive the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Look like a frump may come from the older word frump, used for a person in loose, shapeless clothes who moved in a way that made them look untidy. So, to look like a frump means to appear 'unfashionable' or 'sloppy'.