drabs

Noun (1)

drab (countable and uncountable, plural drabs)

1. (also, attributive) A fabric, usually of thick cotton or wool, having a dull brownish yellow, dull grey, or dun colour.
   • John Hanſell, of Bridport, in Dorſetſhire, ſail-cloth manufacturer, ſtates in his evidence, that the ſale of coarſe woollen cloath was not then a twentieth part of what it had been for the common people formerly, owing to their ſubſtituting Ruſſia drabs and ravenſduck as garments in place of the...1786, “Letter X”, in Examinator’s Letters, or, A Mirror for British Monopolists and Irish Financiers, Dublin: Printed, and sold by the booksellers, →OCLC, pages 41–42

   Synonyms:

   drabcloth

2. (also, attributive) The color of this fabric.
   • Most of the colours called drabs appear to me the same by day-light and candle-light.1794 October 31, John Dalton, “Extraordinary Facts Relating to the Vision of Colours: With Observations”, in Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, volume V, part 1...
3. (also, attributive) Often in the plural form drabs: apparel, especially trousers, made from this fabric.
   • He wore a pretty large wig, which had once been white, but was now of a browniſh yellow; his coat was one of thoſe modeſt-coloured drabs which mock the injuries of duſt and dirt; [...]1771, [Henry Mackenzie], “He Makes a Second Expedition to the Baronet’s. […]”, in The Man of Feeling, 2nd edition, London: Printed for T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 45
4. (also, attributive, broadly) A dull or uninteresting appearance or situation, unremarkable.
   • The slimy little causeway had dropped into the river by a slow process of suicide, and two or three stumps of piles and a rusty iron mooring-ring were all that remained of the departed Break-Neck glories. [...] [T]hrough three-fourths of its rising tides the dirty indecorous drab of a river would...1867 December 12, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, “No Thoroughfare”, in Charles Dickens, editor, All The Year Round: Extra Christmas Number, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 3, column...

Noun (2)

drab (plural drabs)

1. (also, attributive, dated) A dirty or untidy woman; a slattern.
   • [C]ertainly thou deſireſt but thy right, that canſt read a rhetorique, or logique lecture to Hecuba in the art of raving, and inſtruct Tiſiphone herſelfe in her owne gnaſhing language. Other he, or ſhe, drabs of the curſteſt or vengeableſt rankes, are but dipped or dyed in the art; not ſuch a...1593, Gabriell Haruey [i.e., Gabriel Harvey], Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse. A Preparative to Certaine Larger Discourses, Intituled Nashes S. Fame, London: […] Iohn Wolfe...
2. (also, attributive, dated) A promiscuous woman, a slut; a prostitute.
   • Take heed to false harlots, and more, ye wot what. / If noise ye heare, / Looke all be cleare: / Least drabs doe noie thee, / And theeues destroie thee.1878, Thomas Tusser, “74. A Digression.”, in Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC; republished as W[illiam]...

   Synonyms:

   NB: All terms are usually pejorative unless stated otherwise., 304, alley cat, alleycat, amorette, amoret, amorosa, article, Athanasian wench, blowsabella

See all 14 meanings of drab