Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of a dull grayish to yellowish brown.
- adj. Of a light olive brown or khaki color.
- adj. Faded and dull in appearance.
- adj. Dull or commonplace in character; dreary: a drab personality. See Synonyms at dull.
- n. A dull grayish to yellowish or light olive brown.
- n. Cloth of this color or of an unbleached natural color.
- n. A slattern.
- n. A woman prostitute.
- v. To consort with prostitutes: "Even amid his drabbing, he himself retained some virginal airs” ( Stanislaus Joyce).
- n. A negligible amount: finished the work in dribs and drabs.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A slut; a slattern.
- n. A strumpet; a prostitute.
- To associate with strumpets.
- n. A thick woolen cloth of a yellowish-gray color.
- n. A yellowish-gray tint.
- Of a yellowish-gray color, like the cloth so called.
- n. A kind of wooden box used in salt-works for holding the salt when taken out of the boiling-pans. Its bottom is shelving or inclining, that the water may drain off.
- n. An English collectors' name for a number of noctuid moths of a drab color: as, the clouded drab, Tæniocampa instabilis; the northern drab, T. opima; the lead-colored drab, T. populeti.
Wiktionary
- n. dated A dirty or untidy woman; a slattern.
- n. dated A promiscuous woman, a slut; a prostitute.
- v. obsolete To consort with prostitutes.
- n. A fabric, usually of thick wool or cotton, having a drab blee.
- n. A wooden box, used in salt works for holding the salt when taken out of the boiling pans.
- adj. Dull, uninteresting, particularly of colour.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A low, sluttish woman.
- n. A lewd wench; a strumpet.
- n. A wooden box, used in salt works for holding the salt when taken out of the boiling pans.
- v. To associate with strumpets; to wench.
- n. A kind of thick woolen cloth of a dun, or dull brownish yellow, or dull gray, color; -- called also
drabcloth . - n. A dull brownish yellow or dull gray color.
- adj. Of a color between gray and brown.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. lacking in liveliness or charm or surprise
- adj. of a light brownish green color
- adj. lacking brightness or color; dull.
- adj. causing dejection
- n. a dull greyish to yellowish or light olive brown
Etymologies
- Origin uncertain; probably compare Irish drabog, Gaelic drabag ("dirty woman"). (Wiktionary)
- Alteration of obsolete French drap, cloth, from Old French; see drape.Possibly of Celtic origin; akin to Scottish Gaelic dràbag and Irish Gaelic drabóg, slattern, or from Dutch drab, dregs.Probably alteration of drib. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I was often told to cut my hair, to wear shorter heels, to dress in drab colors.”
“A young student of Germans and Jews, supporting himself on grant money and dressed warmly in drab sidewalk grays, beset by his ideas and his passion, he announces, “They are an immoral gaggle of sleazy, lying, undemocratic and dangerous, ulterior motive-driven despots.””
“The language is difficult to understand and it is just plain drab to read.”
“I objected to the fact that most movies, even period movies, show the poor people in drab colors and torn costumes.”
“Lasting sometimes for days in drab locales, drizzle can move large amounts of water from the atmosphere.”
“The streets were dominated by men in drab clothes; boys carried trays of coffee and tea into offices; and the bus station was a jumble of produce stands amid lines of vehicles departing at no particular time — no disadvantage for me, because this was a traditional society in which strangers are immediately looked after.”
“Silicon Roundabout' was what Matt Biddulph, of social network Dopplr, sarcastically dubbed the drab Old Street and City Road junction in July 2008.”
“Things are generally pretty gray and drab, which is sort of a bummer and leaves posts less dynamic than they could (or ought to) be, and the typography doesn't do much to alleviate this feeling of sameness throughout the app.”
“Why then are the majority of the players sent out in playing attire that can only be described as drab?”
“But beyond the idea that we'd never analyze the leg-crossing, "drab" tendencies of Justice Samuel Alito (though Givhan has criticized John Roberts for being too well put together), or the fact that, as Daily Intel points out, Kagan actually does cross her legs, there are three great ironies to this piece:”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘drab’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Imprecise Units of Measurement
A list of terms for units of measurement that are less than exact, such as dessert-spoonful.
two shakes, dessert-spoonful, a pinch, a bit, some, smidge, smidgin, dollop, drop, fleck, smack, sprinkling and 187 more...
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Adjectives
sagacious, average, angry, mad, crazy, giant, ugly, pretty, happy, sad, lonely, solitary and 119 more...
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Adjectives
Appearance Adjectives
Appearance Adject..., adorable, beautiful, clean, drab, elegant, fancy, glamorous, handsome, long, magnificent, old-fashioned and 5 more...
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Vocab_TC60Q_txtbook
most vocab in the textbook Page till end chapter 2.
forfeited, nullifying, avowed, libelous, sapped, fascistic, outclassed, revolting, ecumenical, looming, fretful, penitent and 86 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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maygra
apropos, advantageous, perception, discombobulated, adumbrate, apogee, perihelion, mortmain, solitudinous, mediastinus, asumbrative, traveler and 498 more...
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generationnext's Words
petulant, vehement, pensive, lascivious, vacillate, histrionic, satiated, svelte, lithe, zeitgeist, viscous, sommelier and 526 more...
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I do not like them, Sam I Am
Words that, for various reasons, I wish we could do without.
copacetic, gamut, horehound, lewd, membrane, metrics, mucous, mucus, negligee, nostril, odious, odor and 143 more...
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gcherches's Words
serendipity, roadrunner, inner child, coagulant, esquire, vicissitude, idiot savant, mitigation, affirmation, affirmative, diatribe, affirmative action and 185 more...
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Junk
walrus, fascination, broadway, fickle, downturn, bridge, gargle, rotunda, mesh, fab, shortlife, strumming and 304 more...
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Miss Sunshine
she's such a joy.
bereaved, bitter, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, downcast and 405 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Strange Pennsylvania Place Names
Kad, you've created a monster. ;-)
blue ball, intercourse, scalp level, bird-in-hand, jugtown, stalker, quiggleville, climax, mars, paradise, conshohocken, king of prussia and 217 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Loxodont's list
circumambulate, atelectasis, paramount, therefore, apotropaic, facture, identity, dome, lecture, cannibal, catatonia, rite and 119 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for drab.

frindley As a colour (Shorter OED):
A dull, light brown.
"Woe to white gowns! Woe to black! Drab was your only wear." (M.R. Mitford) Apr 12, 2008
frindley Noun form (Shorter OED):
A dirty, untidy woman; a slut, a slattern
Apr 12, 2008
oroboros Bard in reverse. Jul 22, 2007