dowdy

When Bertha’s down-to-earth sister, Monica, threatens to ruin the overall aesthetic with a dowdy frock, some light sabotage leads Monica to accept Bertha’s previously worn Season 1 gown.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

Especially because, with this dull, dowdy current iteration dragging its cape into theaters, it already has.

From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026

The company also saw that its selection was dowdy and uninspiring.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 19, 2026

The character of Dame Edna began as a dowdy Mrs. Norm Everage, who first took to the stage in Humphries’ hometown of Melbourne in the mid-1950s.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 22, 2023

Mitraillette’s pullover does fit, and I have a many-times patched over wool jacket that once belonged to her brother, but the combination of these warm outer garments and the dowdy frock looks dead weird.

From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein

The actress dowdies up her portrayal with a glumly unsmiling demeanor and the flat, poignantly cynical vocal delivery of the nerd who’s smarter — and more annoying — than everyone else in the room.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 20, 2016

Julie Andrews, Carol Channing, Ann Margret, Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave and Raquel Welch are the other distinguished dowdies, but it's not really their fault.

From Time Magazine Archive

Half of them will be in gray and half of them in brown, and a few old dowdies will perhaps be in black.

From The Rebel of the School by L. T. Meade

Lady Howard, indeed! why, do you think I'd wear one of her dowdies?

From Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney

I hear she went to the Opera on Monday night, and told Tommy Rufford at supper that, as far as she could see, London Society was entirely made up of dowdies and dandies. lord goring. 

From An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

Investors are finding refuge in dowdier sectors such as consumer staples.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

It remains to be seen whether Americans will be more willing to wear dowdier, less comfortable but more effective masks to protect themselves and others.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 27, 2020

It occupies a purpose-built new building, a great whorl of glass and golden stone, a few hundred yards from the PPE philosophers’ dowdier premises.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 23, 2017

“Their locations, their decor, their approach, has been one of the dowdier of the dowdy in the past,” Zietsma said.

From Washington Post ● May 6, 2016

Out at elbows, out at toes, Out at knees, the urchin goes: Still he laughs, and still he grows Rowdier, dowdier, I suppose.

From The Nursery, March 1873, Vol. XIII. A Monthly Magazine for Youngest People by Various

It was arguably the dowdiest of Britain’s major charities — its highest-profile patron has long been Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth’s daughter.

From New York Times ● Jul. 14, 2018

Even in a down economy there's no shortage of potential buyers for even the dowdiest of franchises.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 17, 2010

She glanced with almost maliciousness at Alice, who, in the dowdiest of pale-gray dresses, with her hair rather untidy and her face destitute of color, was standing near one of the windows.

From The Rebel of the School by L. T. Meade

The men sallow, meagre, and wearing those trousers which, cut very wide and flappy at the ankles, make them the dowdiest men in the world.

From Half Portions by Edna Ferber

"She'll dress herself up carefully in the evening to sit at home alone with me, and go out to a big dinner party in the dowdiest gown she's got," he told me once.

From The Heavenly Twins by Madame Sarah Grand