Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A girl or woman regarded as dull, plain, or unfashionable.
  • noun A person regarded as colorless and primly sedate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A taunt; a jeer; a flout; a snub.
  • noun A lie.
  • noun A dowdy woman or girl, particularly when also cross or ill-tempered; a hag.
  • noun A gossip.
  • To be rude to; insult; snub; rebuke.
  • To fabricate or patch up (a tale).
  • To be rude.
  • To go about gossiping.
  • To complain without cause.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A contemptuous speech or piece of conduct; a gibe or flout.
  • noun colloq. A cross, old-fashioned person; esp., an old woman; a gossip.
  • transitive verb obsolete To insult; to flout; to mock; to snub.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun colloquial A frumpy person, somebody who is unattractive, drab or dowdy.
  • noun The clothes that such a person would wear.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a dull unattractive unpleasant girl or woman

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Possibly short for Middle English frumple, wrinkle, from Middle Dutch verrompelen, to wrinkle : ver-, completely; see per in Indo-European roots + rompelen, to wrinkle.]

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Examples

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  • "Transparent stockings, stretched to breaking point. Not like that frump today. A. E. Rumpled stockings."

    Joyce, Ulysses, 13

    January 14, 2007