Drab

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /dɹab/
• US IPA: /dɹæb/
• Rhymes: -æb

Middle English, meaning "color of undyed cloth", from Middle French drap ("cloth"), from Late Latin drappus ("drabcloth, kerchief") (6th century, Vita Caesaris Arelatis)

Jean-Paul Savignac, Dictionnaire français-gaulois, s.v. "drap" (Paris: la Différence, 2004), 123.

, from Gaulish *drappo,

Robert K. Barnhart, ed., Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, s.v. "drab" (NY: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd., 2003).

from Proto-Indo-European *drep- ("to scratch, tear") (compare Old Norse trof ("fringes"), trefja ("to rub, wear out"), Lithuanian drãpanos ("household linens"), Serbo-Croatian drápati ("to scratch, scrape"), Ancient Greek δρέπω (drépein, "to pluck"), Avestan (drafša, "flag, banner"), Sanskrit द्रापि (drāpí, "mantle, gown")).

Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise : une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental, s.v. "drappo" (Paris: Errance, 2001).

Full definition of drab

Adjective

1. Dull, uninteresting, particularly of colour.
• 2011, November 3, David Ornstein, Macc Tel-Aviv 1 - 2 Stoke, In a drab first half, Ryan Shotton's drive was deflected on to a post and Jon Walters twice went close.

Noun

1. A fabric, usually of thick wool or cotton, having a drab colour.
2. The colour of this fabric; a dun, dull grey, or or dull brownish yellow.
3. A wooden box, used in salt works for holding the salt when taken out of the boiling pans.

Synonyms

• (fabric) drabcloth

Derived terms

• drabbing

Origin uncertain; probably compare Irish drabog, Gaelic drabag ("dirty woman").

Noun

1. (dated) A dirty or untidy woman; a slattern.
• Eliot Middlemarch|11Old 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.
2. (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.
3. A box used in a saltworks for holding the salt when taken out of the boiling pans.

Synonyms

• (slut) See
• (prostitute) See

Verb

1. (obsolete) To consort with prostitutes.
• 1602, w, s:Hamlet Chapter act 2 scene 1 line 26, Quarrelling, drabbing - you may go so far.
• 1907, Justin Huntly McCarthy, Needles and pins, He did not relish the apparition of that Katherine, for when it appeared it seemed to bring with it a brother shadow that wore ragged clothes and tangled hair and foul linen, that drank from any flagon and drabbed with any doxy, that slept in tavern angles through hours of drunkenness, a thing whose fingers pillaged, filched, and pilfered when and where they could, a creature that once he saw whenever he stared into a mirror.

Anagrams

• bard, brad, Brad, darb