frumpy

English

WOTD – 12 March 2009

Either from frump or from Middle English frumple +‎ -y.

frumpy (comparative frumpier, superlative frumpiest)

Dowdy, unkempt, or unfashionable.
She came to the door in a frumpy housedress and bedroom slippers.
- July 23 2005, Siobhan Roberts, “John Horton Conway: the world’s most charismatic mathematician”, in The Guardian‎:
  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?”
(dated) Bad-tempered.

dowdy, unfashionable