dowd

1. (archaic) A dowdy person, especially a woman; a frump.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.”"; "He, of course, was only an unbalanced religious fanatic, whose opinions were not of the slightest consequence to anybody, whom everybody seemed to take a dislike to at sight (except ignorant paupers like the Cooneys), and whose ideal type of girl would probably be some hideous dowd, a slum-worker, a Salvation Army lassie, perhaps."; ""You wouldn't have me a dowd, Olaf?" said she, demurely. "I have to be neat and tidy, you know. You wouldn't have me going about in a continuous state of unbuttonedness and black bombazine like Mrs. Rabbet, would you?""archaic