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DINGY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected forms: dingier , dingiest
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Causing dejection
Example:
grim rainy weather
Synonyms:
blue; dark; dingy; disconsolate; dismal; drab; drear; dreary; gloomy; grim; sorry
Classified under:
Similar:
cheerless; depressing; uncheerful (causing sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Thickly covered with ingrained dirt or soot
Example:
a grungy kitchen
Synonyms:
begrimed; dingy; grimy; grubby; grungy; raunchy
Classified under:
Similar:
dirty; soiled; unclean (soiled or likely to soil with dirt or grime)
Derivation:
dinge; dinginess (discoloration due to dirtiness)
Sense 3
Meaning:
(of color) discolored by impurities; not bright and clear
Example:
dirty-blonde hair
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
impure (combined with extraneous elements)
Derivation:
dinge; dinginess (discoloration due to dirtiness)
Context examples:
John Reed was a schoolboy of fourteen years old; four years older than I, for I was but ten: large and stout for his age, with a dingy and unwholesome skin; thick lineaments in a spacious visage, heavy limbs and large extremities.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
When we had those meetings in the garden of the square, and sat within the dingy summer-house, so happy, that I love the London sparrows to this hour, for nothing else, and see the plumage of the tropics in their smoky feathers!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Even on Sunday, when it veiled its more florid charms and lay comparatively empty of passage, the street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fire in a forest; and with its freshly painted shutters, well-polished brasses, and general cleanliness and gaiety of note, instantly caught and pleased the eye of the passenger.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
I walked from the Custom House to the Monument before I found a coach; and although the very house-fronts, looking on the swollen gutters, were like old friends to me, I could not but admit that they were very dingy friends.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
As the cab drew up before the address indicated, the fog lifted a little and showed him a dingy street, a gin palace, a low French eating house, a shop for the retail of penny numbers and twopenny salads, many ragged children huddled in the doorways, and many women of many different nationalities passing out, key in hand, to have a morning glass; and the next moment the fog settled down again upon that part, as brown as umber, and cut him off from his blackguardly surroundings.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
