How to use dowdy in a sentence

11 example sentences · adjective, noun, verb

Dowdy means plain and unfashionable in style or dress. Example: “She's rather dowdy, is she not?”

Examples of dowdy by meaning

adjectiveLacking stylishness or neatness; shabby.

She's rather dowdy, is she not?2020 December 25, Chris Van Dusen, “Diamond of the First Water”, in Bridgerton, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Lady Portia Featherington
What did you turn into anyway?” “Oh, the dowdiest mortal woman.2025 May 11, Monica Padrick, “Don Tyxote” (15:59 from the start), in Krapopolis, season 2, episode 21, spoken by Deliria (Hannah Waddingham)

verbTo press the crust into the filling during baking, to allow the juices to caramelize on top.

Dowdying the crust partway through created the dessert's sweet finish.2021, America's Test Kitchen, The Complete Cook’s Country TV Show Cookbook, page 743

More sentences with dowdy

And that dowdy toque: three old grapes to take the harm out of it.1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC. From the entry wispish
Imagine my astonishment when, reaching the bustling street, every Englishwoman I look on is also attired in a dowdy housecoat.2004, Andrea Levy, chapter 33, in Small Island, London: Review, page 330. From the entry astonishment
Maybe the dowdy recreational vehicle can be a vehicle of discovery, a cure for farsickness, a Huck Finn raft of escape for the middle-aged.2014, James B. Twitchell, Winnebago Nation: The RV in American Culture, Columbia University Press, →ISBN. From the entry farsickness
She wore a large, dowdy hat of black beaver, and a sort of slightly affected simple dress that made her look rather sack-like.1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Part 2, Chapter 8”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part II, page 195. From the entry sacklike
The intern will not call me 'Cornelius―(in fact, that dowdy old name isn't my actual name nor, at the present time, my nom de guerre)―but 'Dr.2014, Joyce Carol Oates, Carthage, Fourth Estate, →ISBN, page 213. From the entry Cornelius
Rebecca despises her professors because they cannot think as clearly as she can, cannot argue as well as she can, and are tired and dowdy and unalive.1929, American Association of University Women, AAUW Journal - Volumes 23-25, page 106. From the entry unalive
I don’t like parsons; especially the country moustachy ones, and their poor dowdy wives, with coats and skirts and then a hardbrimmed hat with a feather on the top.1904, Danby Earl, Through Many Voices, page 72. From the entry moustachy
Whatever the reason for her old-fashioned appearance, certainly the mocking critics who are “making fun” of her dowdy clothes are only proving that their manners are inferior to their raiment.1920 August 12, Helen Decle, “What’s What”, in The Everett Daily Herald, Everett, Wash., →OCLC, page 10, columns 1–2. From the entry raiment

Meaning of dowdy

adjective Plain and unfashionable in style or dress.
adjective Lacking stylishness or neatness; shabby.
noun A plain or shabby person.

Full definition of dowdy

Questions about dowdy in a sentence

How do you use dowdy in a sentence?: Dowdy is used as an adjective, noun and verb. For example: “She's rather dowdy, is she not?”
What is a short sentence with dowdy?: “She's rather dowdy, is she not?”
What does dowdy mean?: Dowdy means plain and unfashionable in style or dress.

Adapted from Wiktionary: dowdy (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use dowdy in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/dowdy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.