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Drab vs Shabby - What's the difference?

drab | shabby | Related terms |

Drab is a related term of shabby.


As a noun drab

is beadle, catchpole.

As an adjective shabby is

torn or worn; poor; mean; ragged.

drab

English

Etymology 1

(etyl), meaning "color of undyed cloth", from (etyl) ).Xavier Delamarre, ''Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise : une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental , s.v. "drappo" (Paris: Errance, 2001).

Adjective

(drabber)
  • Dull, uninteresting, particularly of colour.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=November 3 , author=David Ornstein , title=Macc Tel-Aviv 1 - 2 Stoke , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=In a drab first half, Ryan Shotton's drive was deflected on to a post and Jon Walters twice went close.}}

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A fabric, usually of thick wool or cotton, having a drab colour.
  • The colour of this fabric; a dun, dull grey, or or dull brownish yellow.
  • A wooden box, used in saltworks for holding the salt when taken out of the boiling pans.
    • Quotations
    * (English Citations of "drab")
    Synonyms
    * (fabric) (l)
    Derived terms
    * (l)

    Etymology 2

    Origin uncertain; probably compare Irish drabog, Gaelic .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (dated) A dirty or untidy woman; a slattern.
  • *
    • Old provincial society had [...] its brilliant young professional dandies who ended by living up an entry with a drab and six children for their establishment [...].
  • * 1956 , (John Creasey), Gideon's Week :
    • The doss house emptied during the day; from ten o'clock until five or six in the evening, there was no one there except Mulliver, a drab who did some of the cleaning for him, and occasional visitors.
  • (dated) A promiscuous woman, a slut; a prostitute.
  • * 1957 , (Frank Swinnerton), The Woman from Sicily :
    • Ineffable sarcasm underlined the word 'bride', suggesting that Mrs Mudge must be a drab who had married for respectability.
    (Shakespeare)
  • A box used in a saltworks for holding the salt when taken out of the boiling pans.
    • Synonyms
    * (slut) See * (prostitute) See

    Verb

    (drabb)
  • (obsolete) To consort with prostitutes.
  • *
  • *

    • Anagrams

    *

    References

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    shabby

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Torn or worn; poor; mean; ragged.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
    • , title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.}}
    They lived in a tiny apartment, with some old, shabby furniture.
  • Clothed with ragged, much worn, or soiled garments.
    • The fellow arrived looking rather shabby after journeying so far.
  • Mean; paltry; despicable.
    • shabby treatment

    Derived terms

    * shabby-genteel (Webster 1913)