frumpish, a.
(ˈfrʌmpɪʃ)
[f. frump n. + -ish.]
Disposed to mock or flout; jesting, sneering; also, cross, ill-tempered.
| 1647 Wharton Pluto's Progr. Gt. Brit. 15 Thy lowring scowling makes me dumpish, For to see my Love so frumpish. a 1668 Davenant Play-House to be Let Wks. (1673) 116 When Fortune frumpish is, who e're withstood her? 1757 Foote Author ii. Wks. 1799 I. 155 Methought she looked very frumpish and jealous. 1820 Keats & Hunt Keats' Wks. (1889) III. 35 Such a frumpish old fellow. 1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal I. ii. 47 The companion sour and frumpish. |
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Add: 2. Esp. of a woman: old-fashioned or dowdy; of appearance, etc.: characteristic of a frump; outmoded, shabby, drab.
| 1847 in Webster. 1889 Mod. Society 12 Oct. 1271/2 Quite an elderly and superannuated look is given to the toilette which is finished off by a woollen cloud or silken shawl, and only invalids and sixty-year-old women should be allowed such frumpish privileges. 1939 M. B. Picken Lang. Fashion 60/3 Frumpy or frumpish. Dowdy; untidy; poorly dressed. 1958 Times 11 Sept. 9/4 Here is a creation..the most frumpish would scorn, a dress which, if ever it found its way into a shop, would be hidden away in the darkest, farthest corner. 1991 S. Hill Air & Angels x. 59 We are a very closed society here. We are so far out, and I daresay we give off a slightly frumpish air—even conventual. We have very little male society. |
Hence ˈfrumpishness n.
| 1889 in Cent. Dict. 1983 Financial Times 17 Mar. 23/1 Anna sings her first aria slumped on an overturned chair, wearing a Lady Billows hat... The spirits sink at this point, but such frumpishness is not general. |