| English Dictionary |
DRAB (drabbed, drabber, drabbest, drabbing)
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
, drabber , drabbest , drabbing Dictionary entry overview: What does drab mean?
• DRAB (noun)
The noun DRAB has 1 sense:
1. a dull greyish to yellowish or light olive brown
Familiarity information: DRAB used as a noun is very rare.
• DRAB (adjective)
The adjective DRAB has 4 senses:
1. lacking in liveliness or charm or surprise
2. lacking brightness or color; dull
3. of a light brownish green color
4. causing dejection
Familiarity information: DRAB used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
A dull greyish to yellowish or light olive brown
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Synonyms:
drab; olive drab
Hypernyms ("drab" is a kind of...):
olive (a yellow-green color of low brightness and saturation)
| Declension: comparative and superlative |
Superlative: drabbest
Sense 1
Meaning:
Lacking in liveliness or charm or surprise
Synonyms:
drab; dreary
Context example:
a series of dreary dinner parties
Similar:
dull (lacking in liveliness or animation)
Derivation:
drabness (having a drab or dowdy quality; lacking stylishness or elegance)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Lacking brightness or color; dull
Synonyms:
Context example:
children in somber brown clothes
Similar:
colorless; colourless (weak in color; not colorful)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Of a light brownish green color
Synonyms:
drab; olive-drab
Similar:
chromatic (being or having or characterized by hue)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Causing dejection
Synonyms:
blue; dark; dingy; disconsolate; dismal; drab; drear; dreary; gloomy; grim; sorry
Context example:
grim rainy weather
Similar:
cheerless; depressing; uncheerful (causing sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy)
Context examples
They looked very well in their simple suits, Meg's in silvery drab, with a blue velvet snood, lace frills, and the pearl pin.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
At the end of a long drab passage my new acquaintance pushed open a door and turned on an electric switch.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Rendered complete by drab pantaloons and a buff waistcoat, I thought Mr. Barkis a phenomenon of respectability.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Georgiana added to her How d'ye do? several commonplaces about my journey, the weather, and so on, uttered in rather a drawling tone: and accompanied by sundry side-glances that measured me from head to foot—now traversing the folds of my drab merino pelisse, and now lingering on the plain trimming of my cottage bonnet.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
But when, for the fourth time, after pushing back our chairs from breakfast we saw the greasy, heavy brown swirl still drifting past us and condensing in oily drops upon the window-panes, my comrade’s impatient and active nature could endure this drab existence no longer.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He wore rather baggy grey shepherd’s check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as an ornament.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
One of the young ladies asked Jo where she got the pretty drab hat she wore to the picnic and stupid Jo, instead of mentioning the place where it was bought two years ago, must needs answer with unnecessary frankness, Oh, Amy painted it.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
It was a sight which I shall never forget until my dying day—so weird, so impossible, that I do not know how I am to make you realize it, or how in a few years I shall bring myself to believe in it if I live to sit once more on a lounge in the Savage Club and look out on the drab solidity of the Embankment.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The gentleman spoken of was a gentleman with a very unpromising squint, and a prominent chin, who had a tall white hat on with a narrow flat brim, and whose close-fitting drab trousers seemed to button all the way up outside his legs from his boots to his hips.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
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