drab
/dɹæb/ noun, adjective, verb
Forms drabs drabber drabbest drabbing drabbed
- noun A fabric, usually of thick cotton or wool, having a dull brownish yellow, dull grey, or dun colour.
- noun The color of this fabric.
- noun Often in the plural form drabs: apparel, especially trousers, made from this fabric.
- noun (by extension) A dull or uninteresting appearance or situation, unremarkable.
- adjective Of the color of some types of drabcloth: dull brownish yellow or dun.
- adjective (by extension) Particularly of color: dull, uninteresting.
- noun (dated) A dirty or untidy woman; a slattern.
- noun (dated) A promiscuous woman, a slut; a prostitute.
- verb (intransitive, obsolete) To consort with prostitutes; to whore.
- noun A small amount, especially of money.
- noun A box used in a saltworks for holding the salt when taken out of the boiling pans.
- noun (chiefly transgender slang) An instance of a transgender or non-binary person presenting as the gender corresponding to their sex assigned at birth instead of that corresponding to their internal gender identity (most commonly a trans woman dressed as a man).
- noun (obsolete, slang) Poison.
- verb (obsolete, slang) To poison.
Synonyms
drabcloth 304 alley cat alleycat amorette amoret amorosa article Athanasian wench blowsabella bop chippy cocotte cockatrice cockslut cockwhore crumpet cum dumpster cum guzzler cumhole olive drab dreary sober somber sombre olive-drab blue dark dingy disconsolate
Antonyms
Etymology
Probably from Middle French and Old French drap (“cloth”), either:
* from Late Latin drappus (“drabcloth, kerchief; piece of cloth”), most likely from Gaulish *drappo, from Proto-Indo-European *drep- (“to scratch, tear”); or
* from Frankish *drapi, *drāpi (“that which is fulled, drabcloth”), from Proto-Germanic *drap-, *drēp- (“something beaten”), from *drepaną (“to beat, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrebʰ- (“to beat, crush; to make or become thick”).
The English word is cognate with Ancient Greek δρέπω (drépō, “to pluck”), Avestan 𐬛𐬭𐬀𐬟𐬱𐬀 (drafša, “banner, flag”), Lithuanian drãpanos (“household linens”), Old Norse trefja (“to rub, wear out”), trof (“fringes”), Sanskrit द्रापि (drāpi, “mantle, gown”), Serbo-Croatian drápati (“to scratch, scrape”)).
The origin of the noun is uncertain; compare Middle English drabelen, drablen, draplen (“to soil; make dirty; to drag on the ground or through mud”), and Low German drabbe (“dirt, mud”), drabbeln (“to soil”), and Old Norse drabba (“to make drab; make dirty”), the latter three ultimately from Proto-Germanic *drepaną (“to hit, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreb- (“to crush, grind; to kill”). The word is also likely to be related to Dutch drab (“dregs, sediment”), Irish drabog, Scottish Gaelic drabag (“dirty woman; slattern”).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Probably related to drop (“small mass of liquid”).
Unknown.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A low, sluttish woman. King.
- noun A lewd wench; a strumpet. Shak.
- verb To associate with strumpets; to wench. Beau. & Fl.
- noun A kind of thick woolen cloth of a dun, or dull brownish yellow, or dull gray, color; --called also drabcloth.
Etymology [AS. drabbe dregs, lees; akin to D. drab, drabbe, dregs, G. treber; for sense 1, cf. also Gael. drabag a slattern, drabach slovenly. Cf. Draff.]
Etymology [F. drap cloth: LL. drappus, trapus, perh. orig., a firm, solid stuff, cf. F. draper to drape, also to full cloth; prob. of German origin; cf. Icel. drepa to beat, strike, AS. drepan, G. treffen; perh. akin to E. drub. Cf. Drape, Trappings.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “drab”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details