Word.ws English Dictionary

plain Dunstable

plain Dunstable noun: straightforward language; straight talk.

Noun

plain Dunstable (uncountable)

  1. (archaic) straightforward language; straight talk.
    • Because I value Mr. Solmes as my friend, you treat him the worse — That's the plain Dunstable of the matter, Miss! — I am not such a fool but I can see that.1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn...
    • ‘Fancy roams over half the world in lovers' sighs, and plain Dunstable in gallantry belongs only to the Puritan ; but never have I met such fantastic wooing and cooing since I went in for daggering of arms myself.’1899, Sidney Herbert Burchell, The Duke's Servants: A Romance, page 188

Adjective

plain Dunstable (comparative more plain Dunstable, superlative most plain Dunstable)

  1. (archaic) Straightforward, honest.
    • Before you betake yourself to new grammarian labours and dictionary inventions, learn to understand a plain Latin metaphor, that your denials thereof, because it is not in plain dunstable terms, be not reputed, if not profoundly impudent, yet profoundly ignorant.1607, Henry Fitzsimon, “Gentle Bickering with Dean Rider”, in Words of comfort to persecuted Catholics, written in exile, anno 1607, page 243
    • Why, master Thorney, do you mean to talk out your dinner ? the company attends your coming . What must it be, master Frank ? or son Frank ? I am plain Dunstable.1621, John Ford, The Witch of Edmonton

Forms of plain Dunstable

comparativemore plain Dunstable
superlativemost plain Dunstable

Origin of plain Dunstable

Likely from an old Bedfordshire proverb "as plain as Dunstable road" or "as plain as Dunstable highway".

Questions about plain Dunstable

What does plain Dunstable mean?
Plain Dunstable means straightforward language; straight talk.
What part of speech is plain Dunstable?
Plain Dunstable can be a noun or an adjective.

Words near plain Dunstable in the dictionary

  1. plain dealer
  2. plain dealers
  3. plain dealing
  4. plain dealings
  5. plain dress
  6. plain Dunstable
  7. Plain Dutch
  8. plain English
  9. plain film
  10. plain films
  11. plain flour

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plain Dunstable (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “plain Dunstable.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/plain_dunstable. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.