Frowsty

//ˈfraʊsti// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of an atmosphere: not fresh; close, musty, stuffy; of an object: having a musty, stale odour. British, dialectal

    "He thought of getting back by half-past twelve, / And tot of rum to send him warm to sleep / In draughty dug-out frowsty with the fumes / Of coke, and full of snoring, weary men."

  2. 2
    Of a person: dull, slow; also, unkempt, untidy. British, dialectal

    "A window opened above the shop, and a frowsty-looking man, yellow-pale, was quickly and nervously hauling in the national flag. There were shouts of derision and mockery—a great overtone of acrid derision—the flag and its owner ignominiously disappeared."

Adjective
  1. 1
    stale and unclean smelling wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
malodorousfrowsy, frowzybadbad-smellingblastedblighted

Example

More examples

"He thought of getting back by half-past twelve, / And tot of rum to send him warm to sleep / In draughty dug-out frowsty with the fumes / Of coke, and full of snoring, weary men."

Etymology

Origin unknown; possibly a variant of frowsy (frousy, frouzy, frowzy), etymology also unknown; and possibly related to Old French frouste (“decayed, in a state of ruin”). Compare also froughy, frow.

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