Dowd

//daʊd// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A dowdy person, especially a woman; a frump. archaic

    "“I knew there were women-dowdies in Bengal. They come up here sometimes. But I didn't know that there were men-dowds, too.”"

  2. 2
    Any of various European moths of the genus Blastobasis.
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname from Irish.

Example

More examples

"“I knew there were women-dowdies in Bengal. They come up here sometimes. But I didn't know that there were men-dowds, too.”"

Etymology

Etymology 1

Back-formation from dowdy.

Etymology 2

Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó Dubhda (“descendant of Dubhda”), a byname derived from dubh (“black”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.