Skip to main content
frumpy

frumpy

11 7.3
Clothes or a person that look old-fashioned and not attractive
  • adjective
  • /ˈfrʌm.pi/
  • Informal
translation icon : anticuado
  • She decided to donate her frumpy clothes to charity and buy a more stylish wardrobe.
  • frumpy-looking
  • frumpy dress
  • frumpy woman

For me, this seems a little frumpy, like a little matronly, if you will.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • After her makeover, she felt confident and no longer looked frumpy in her new outfits.

  • Someone frumpy but interesting, or someone gorgeous but dull?

  • We need to get you out of these frumpy clothes and into something -that shows off the real estate a little bit.

  • "Frumpy, she was, in a way that inspired confidence.

  • For me, this seems a little frumpy, like a little matronly, if you will.

  • My mother was kind of... Middle-aged and frumpy.

  • Imagine if she were an equally frumpy 22-year-old woman.

    Blog text (28)
  • The gal is skinny, plain, frumpy, very shy, lonely, and bored.

    Blog text (4)
  • A lone checkout lady behind the counter, big and frumpy, looks up from counting money.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • Finally, the door was opened by a frumpy-looking woman with curlers in her hair, cold cream on her face, and a drooping figure.

    Academic text (1996)

Synonyms

scruffy
vsfrumpy
23 3.8

Messy and untidy in clothes or appearance

is less about dirt and more about being old-fashioned and unstylish
fuddy
vsfrumpy
  • Archaic
11 9.9

Old-fashioned and not open to new ideas

is more about being unfashionable and messy in clothes and look
dowdy
vsfrumpy
6 7.1

Plain and old-fashioned in a way that looks unattractive

is more about old-fashioned unattractiveness and lack of neatness
fusty
vsfrumpy
1 9.9

Old-fashioned and slow to accept new ideas

is about fashion and neatness rather than smell or stale qualities
frowzy
vsfrumpy
1 9.9

Being dirty and messy in appearance

is gentler, meaning simply old-fashioned and lacking neatness
frumpish
vsfrumpy
  • Informal
9.9

Looking plain and out of fashion in a dull way

is the same idea but focuses on unattractiveness and untidiness
raggie
vsfrumpy
  • UK
9.9

Having old torn clothes and looking untidy

is broader, describing old-fashioned unattractiveness and lack of neatness

Antonyms

85 2.0

Clothes or rooms that look fashionable and attractive

How Dowdy

dowdy
6 7.1
frumpy
  • Informal
11 7.3
frumpish
  • Informal
9.9
old-fashioned
149 4.7

Surface Forms

frumpy positive
frumpier comparative
frumpiest superlative

Morphology

frumpy = frump (transparent) = frump + y

Meaning is directly derived from the noun 'frump' with the productive adjectival suffix '-y', so the adjective's sense is predictable from the base.

Etymology

Frumpy comes from an older English word frump, which meant a dull or old-fashioned person, and the ending -y turns that into 'like a frump'. A helpful way to remember it is to think of words like dumpy or grumpy, which also use -y to describe a look or mood, so frumpy means 'old-fashioned and not stylish'.