▪ I. drab, n.1
(dræb)
Also 6 drabe, 6–7 drabb(e.
[Not known before 16th c.; derivation uncertain: prob. at first a low or cant word. Evidently connected with Irish drabog, Gael. drabag dirty female, slattern; but evidence is wanting to show which is the original. Connexion with LG. drabbe dirt, mire, has also been suggested.]
1. A dirty and untidy woman; a slut, slattern.
| c 1515 Cocke Lorell's B. (Percy Soc.) 11 Sluttes, drabbes, and counseyll whystelers. 1526 R. Whitford Martiloge (1893) 36 Saynt Tabite was holden a fole and drabbe of kechyn. 1530 Palsgr. 215/1 Drabbe a slutte, uilotiere. a 1712 W. King Art Cookery (T.) So at an Irish funeral appears A train of drabs with mercenary tears. 1816 Scott Old Mort. viii, A dirty drab of a housemaid. 1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. xi, Who ended by living up an entry with a drab and six children for their establishment. |
2. A harlot, prostitute, strumpet.
| c 1530 Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814) 403 And than shall the drabbe, my doughter, be mured vp in a stone wall. 1547 Boorde Brev. Health ii. 6 b, Gyve that knave or drabbe a phylyp with a club. 1605 Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 31 Birth-strangled Babe, Ditch-deliuer'd by a Drab. 1675 Cocker Morals 15 Drink, Dice, and Drabs, three dange'rous Dees. 1731 Swift Answ. Simile Wks. 1755 IV. i. 223 Each drab has been compared to Venus. 1856 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh v. 789 And said ‘my sister’ to the lowest drab Of all the assembled castaways. |
| transf. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet D iv b, There is no more sullen beast, than a he drab. |
¶ The following are probably distinct words:
3. Salt-making. See quot. and cf. crib n. 9.
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Drabs, in the English salt works, a name given to a sort of wooden cases into which the salt is put, as soon as it is taken out of the boiling pan..Their bottoms are made..gradually inclining forwards; by which means the saline liquor that remains mixed with the salt easily drains out. In some places they use cribs instead of the Drabs. |
4. A small or petty sum (of money); esp. in dribs and drabs: see drib.
| 1828 Craven Dial., Drab, a small debt. ‘He's gain away for good, and he's left some drabs’. 1847–78 in Halliwell. 1861 Mayhew Lond. Labour III. 200 (Hoppe) None of us save money; it goes either in a lump, if we get a lump, or in dribs and drabs. 1888 Daily News 19 Apr. 3/5 It [the payment] was received in dribs and drabs. |
▪ II. drab, n.2 and a.
(dræb)
[In early quotations app. synonymous with drap cloth (see quot. from Bailey, and cf. drap-de-Berry). Conjectured to have been applied to a hempen, linen, or woollen cloth of the natural undyed colour, whence attrib. in drap or drab colour, i.e. the colour of this cloth, and thus to have gradually become an adj. of colour: cf. rose, pink, salmon, etc. as colour names.]
A. n. A kind of cloth: see quots.
| 1541 Lanc. Wills 80 Ij drabs of teir of hempe, a drab of new canvis. [1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Drap (Fr.), cloath, Woollen-cloath. 1718 Freethinker No. 42 ¶8 To smile on a Brocade more than upon a Brown Drap.] 1721 Bailey, Drap, Drab, cloth, woollen Cloth. 1740 Dyche & Pardon, Drab, an extraordinary sort of woollen cloth, chiefly worn in the winter-time. 1753 Hanway Trav. II. i. v. 20 British Woollens, such as hair-list drabs..We improved some of our drabs, so as to be almost equal to the dutch cloths in the substance. [1772 Mrs. Scott Test Filial Duty II. 220 Collin, whose wedding coat is a new white drap.] |
B. adj. a. Of a dull light-brown or yellowish-brown.
| [1686 Lond. Gaz. No. 2100/4 The one with a Drapp-colour cloth Campaigne Coat.] 1715–1768 [see drap-coloured, drab-coloured, in D. below.] 1775 Ash, Drab (adj. with clothiers), belonging to a gradation of plain colours betwixt a white and a dark brown. 1803 S. Pegge Anecd. Eng. Lang. 266 Hence our drab cloth, pure and undied cloth, and they call this a drab colour in the trade. 1832 Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 523 The cottages..were of a deep drab hue. 1837 Dickens Pickw. iii, He wore wide drab trousers. 1865 Sat. Rev. 12 Aug. (L.) Male Quakers have..discarded broadbrimmed hats and drab breeches. |
b. fig. Dull; wanting brightness or colour.
| 1880 R. Broughton Sec. Th. i. iv, The little drab day has already dropped in the maw of..night. 1892 Pall Mall G. 27 Feb. 1/2 The lives of the people..are dull and drab; a round of work with but little amusement. |
c. In comb. with other names of colours.
| 1894 R. B. Sharpe Hand-bk Birds Gt. Brit. I. 12 Sides of neck and under surface of body drab-grey. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 15 May 10/2 The rather soft fur of the underparts is drab-brown. |
C. n. [absol. use of the adj.]
1. a. Drab colour; cloth or clothing of this colour; esp. in pl. = drab breeches.
| 1821 Clare Vill. Ministr. I. 38 Milk-maids..Threw ‘cotton drabs’ and ‘worsted hose’ away. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 38 Woe to white gowns! woe to black! Drab was your only wear. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xiv, A short old gentleman, in drabs and gaiters. 1884 Pall Mall G. 7 June 5/1 Silk gowns of Quaker drab. |
b. S. Afr. (pl.) The long feathers on the part of the wing of a female ostrich near to the junction with the body. (In quot. 1896 drab is adj.)
| 1881 A. Douglass Ostrich Farming in S. Afr. xi. 68 The little white belly feathers should have been replaced by blacks or drabs. 1896 R. Wallace Farming Ind. Cape Col. xi. 235 Drab, long, and medium were about 10s. per lb. lower. 1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 167 Drabs, corresponding growth from the female. |
c. fig. A dull or lifeless appearance or character.
| 1903 Daily Chron. 31 Dec. 5/1 Despite the fact that so many of his works wore a drab, still those who knew him best recognised that the drab was the colour of his experience. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 4 Feb. 1/3 It is the one sustained note of colour in the dreary drab of Irish life. |
2. Collector's name for a group of moths.
| 1819 G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 370 Noctua angusta. The dark Drab. Noctua geminata. The twin-spotted Drab. 1869 Newman British Moths 358 The clouded Drab (Tæniocampa instabilis). |
D. Comb., as drab-breeched, drab-coloured, drab-tinted; drab-coat a., wearing a drab coat, drab-coated.
| 1715 Lond. Gaz. No. 5328/4 Dark Drap colour'd Coat. 1768 Sterne Sent. Journ. (1775) 114 (Mystery) Dressed in a dark drab-colour'd coat. 1843 Syd. Smith Lett. on Amer. Debts Wks. 1859 II. 330/1 Drab-coloured men of Pennsylvania. 1848 Whittier Peace Con. at Brus. Poems (1882) 149 The dull, meek droning of a drab-coat seer. |
Hence ˈdrably adv., in drab colour; also fig., without brightness or colour, dully, uninterestingly; in comb., as drably-clad, drab-tinted; ˈdrabman (humorous nonce-wd.), a quaker; ˈdrabness, drab quality.
| 1860 All Year Round No. 66. 378 Labouring..at our target practice, long before the drowsy drabmen have moved from their pillows. 1878 M. E. Braddon Open Verd. viii. 60 Though the paint was mostly gone a general drabness remained. 1891 H. C. Halliday Some one must suffer II. xii. 217 That drably-tinted lady. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 19 Sept. 10/1 Few guess that the dahlia..has had a drably unromantic origin. 1918 Cornhill Mag. June 616 The desirability of expressing thoughts fully and truly in words..is too drably presented to the child. 1927 Sunday Express 1 May 9 Their novels look drably old-fashioned. 1956 Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst. 216 The sun's interior must be drably uniform. |
▪ III. drab, v.
(dræb)
[f. drab n.1]
intr. To associate with harlots; to whore. Also to drab it.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. ii. i. 26 Drinking, fencing, swearing, Quarelling, drabbing. a 1624 Bp. M. Smith Serm. (1632) 276 He is the true gentleman now adayes, that can drinke and drab it best. 1719 D'Urfey Pills (1872) III. 48 I'll drink and drab. 1853 Blackw. Mag. LXXIV. 110 He would have drunk and diced, drabbed and hunted. |
Hence ˈdrabbing vbl. n.; † ˈdrabber, a whoremonger.
| a 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Triumph of Death vi, Drunkenness, and drabbing, thy two morals. 1632 Massinger City Madam iv. ii. A most insatiate drabber. 1820 Scott Monast. xxxv, Nothing but dicing, drinking and drabbing. |