Henry perceived that his mother and his aunt were badly dressed—in truth, dowdy.

You know you wouldn't like it if I went about in dowdy old things.

A little girl in Punch improves on the talk of her dowdy mother with the maids.

So that dowdy get-up is for my benefit, and is not habitual to her!

Why do you hide your hair, and wear such a dowdy, high gown, Julia?

A dowdy in sad-colored print or linsey is by no means to their taste.

Dowdy in dress, and drooping, she showed to great disadvantage.

She felt plain and dowdy beside them, and her spirits suffered in consequence.

So was Madeleine, though she had to sit most of the evening by the Princess—such a dowdy!

No, sir, I'm not going out a dowdy to please you or anybody else.