Dictionary

blowsy en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈblaʊzi/

Etymology

Etymology tree English blows(e) Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English blowsy From blows(e) + -y.

Meanings

1. Having a reddish, coarse complexion, especially with a pudgy face.
   • […] with a face made blowsy by the cold and damp. 1861, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XI, in Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, part I, page 186:
   • […] a man of, say, well-preserved sixty, with a blowsy plump face and fat white side-whiskers. 1913, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter 13, in The Day of Days:
   • They put me in mind of a poor Girl, a Miss Peachy (a real, & in the end, a melancholy Story)—she was a fine young Woman; but thinking herself too ruddy & blowsy, it was her Custom to bleed herself (an Art she had learn’d on purpose) 3 or 4 times against the Rugby Races in order to appear more dainty & Lady-like at the balls, &c 1778, Samuel Crisp, The early journals and letters of Fanny Burney, volume III, published 1994, page 188:
2. (of a woman's hair or dress) Slovenly or unkempt, in the manner of a beggar or slattern.
   • Her hair so untidy, so blowsy! 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 8, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
   • The double-breasted blazer which is on every front row this season came with an elbow-length sleeve for spring, while jumpsuits, a signature of the label, came slinky and tailored or in a blowsier boiler suit silhouette. 2017 October 2, Jess Cartner-Morle, “Stella McCartney lays waste to disposable fashion in Paris”, in the Guardian:
3. Unrefined, countrified.
   • He longed for the warmth and the smells of his favourite haunts—Gilpin's with oysters frizzling in a dozen pans, and noble odours stealing from the tap-room, the Green Man with its tripe-suppers, Wanless's Coffee House, noted for its cuts of beef and its white puddings. He would give much to be in a chair by one of those hearths and in the thick of that blowsy fragrance. 1921, John Buchan, chapter 11, in The Path of the King, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
   • The hot, blowsy country, remote from danger, had a lonely, forgotten feeling. 1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC:

Forms

Deriveds

blowsiness · blowsily

Translations (4)

bg раздърпан (Slovenly or unkept) · bg червендалест (Having a reddish, coarse complexion) · bg зачервен (Having a reddish, coarse complexion) · bg рошав (Slovenly or unkept)