different between frowsy vs frowny

English

Alternative forms

• frowzy

Etymology

Unknown, but perhaps related to the dialectal adjective frowsty. Attested since the 1680s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f?a?zi/

Adjective

frowsy (comparative frowsier, superlative frowsiest)

1. Having a dingy, neglected, and scruffy appearance.
   • 1916, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Chapter 3, [2]

     Frowsy girls sat along the curbstones before their baskets.

   • 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part One, Chapter 1, [3]

     He had seen it lying in the window of a frowsy little junk-shop in a slummy quarter of the town (just what quarter he did not now remember) and had been stricken immediately by an overwhelming desire to possess it.

   See also citations under frowzy.

Translations

References

English

Etymology

frown +? -y

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f?a?ni/
• Rhymes: -a?ni

Adjective

frowny (comparative frownier, superlative frowniest)

1. (informal or childish) Frowning.
   • 1895, Percival Pollard, The Cape of Storms, Chapter V, p. 75, [1]

     […] the black-and-white splendor of our men, as well as the fur-decked rosiness of our women, is only enhanced by contrast against the frowny murkings of the sky.

   • 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, “Sunday,” [2]

     He was always very frowny when the doorbell rang in the middle of Bible reading […]

   She made a frowny face.

Derived terms

• frowny face

Noun

frowny (plural frownies)

1. Short for frowny face.