Word of the Week: frowzy (FROU-zē)

Definition

(Adjective) Ill-smelling, fusty, musty; having a “close” unpleasant smell from being dirty, unwashed, ill-ventilated, or the like.

In Context

“Those London lodgings, — I should have to live in lodgings in London, poor lodgings, because they are cheap and I am cheap, — frowzy lodgings, savored with frying, garnished at intervals with a slatternly landlady and a little slavey.”

“The Contributors’ Club,” The Atlantic Monthly, March 1904.