Blowsabella
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A rural woman; a country wench. obsolete
"So ridiculous was Waller's second wife in the eyes of Johnson, even with Tetty, his own red-faced Blowsabella, vividly surviving in his remembrance!"
- 2 A hot-tempered, unjustifiably angry woman, usually stereotyped as a red-haired Irish maidservant. broadly, obsolete
- 3 A disheveled woman; a slattern. broadly, obsolete
""I declare I have not been able to get a single glance in the glass, and I am sure I shall look a regular Blouzabella," remarked a sparkling brunette."
- 4 A promiscuous woman or prostitute. broadly, obsolete
"It is the way of the world. It is just as well Polly is faithless. If it were otherwise, she would very likely break her heart for him.¶ And deep down in his muddled mind he knows that stately ship as the symbol of his first love, a love more cruel in her way than this poor Blowsabella of Paradise Street, a love whose gifts are hardship, and cold, and peril in great waters—yet to whom, while breath is in his body, he will continually return."
Example
More examples"So ridiculous was Waller's second wife in the eyes of Johnson, even with Tetty, his own red-faced Blowsabella, vividly surviving in his remembrance!"
Etymology
18th-century Great Britain. From a character in John Gay's 1714 poem The Shepherd's Week.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.