dingy

Also found in: Thesaurus, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

Related to dingy: dengue fever, thesaurus

dingy

dirty-looking; drab

Not to be confused with:

dinghy – a small boat

din·gy¹

(dĭn′jē)

adj. din·gi·er, din·gi·est

1. Darkened with smoke or grime.

2. Shabby, drab, or squalid.

[Possibly from Middle English dinge, dung, variant of dung; see dung.]

din′gi·ly adv.

din′gi·ness n.

ding·y²

(dĭng′ē)

adj. Slang

Mentally deranged; crazy.

[ding + -y.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

dingy

(ˈdɪndʒɪ)

adj, -gier or -giest

1. lacking light or brightness; drab

2. dirty; discoloured

[C18: perhaps from an earlier dialect word related to Old English dynge dung]

ˈdingily adv

ˈdinginess n

dingy

(ˈdɪŋɪ)

vb, pl -gies, -gying or -gied

(tr) slang Brit to ignore (a person) or avoid (an event)

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

din•gy

(ˈdɪn dʒi)

adj. -gi•er, -gi•est.

1. of a dark, dull, or dirty color or aspect; lacking brightness or freshness.

2. shabby; dismal.

[1730–40; orig. uncertain]

din′gi•ly, adv.

din′gi•ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Adj.	1.	dingy - thickly covered with ingrained dirt or soot; "a miner's begrimed face"; "dingy linen"; "grimy hands"; "grubby little fingers"; "a grungy kitchen" begrimed, grimy, grungy, grubby, raunchy dirty, soiled, unclean - soiled or likely to soil with dirt or grime; "dirty unswept sidewalks"; "a child in dirty overalls"; "dirty slums"; "piles of dirty dishes"; "put his dirty feet on the clean sheet"; "wore an unclean shirt"; "mining is a dirty job"; "Cinderella did the dirty work while her sisters preened themselves"
	2.	dingy - (of color) discolored by impurities; not bright and clear; "dirty" is often used in combination; "a dirty (or dingy) white"; "the muddied grey of the sea"; "muddy colors"; "dirty-green walls"; "dirty-blonde hair" muddied, muddy, dirty impure - combined with extraneous elements
	3.	dingy - causing dejection; "a blue day"; "the dark days of the war"; "a week of rainy depressing weather"; "a disconsolate winter landscape"; "the first dismal dispiriting days of November"; "a dark gloomy day"; "grim rainy weather" dismal, drear, dreary, disconsolate, gloomy, drab, sorry, grim, blue, dark cheerless, depressing, uncheerful - causing sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy; "the economic outlook is depressing"; "something cheerless about the room"; "a moody and uncheerful person"; "an uncheerful place"

dingy

adjective

1. dull, dark, dim, gloomy, murky, dreary, sombre, drab, colourless, dusky, bedimmed He took me to his rather dingy office.

2. discoloured, soiled, dirty, shabby, faded, seedy, grimy wallpaper with dingy yellow stripes

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

dingy

adjective

Showing signs of wear and tear or neglect:

bedraggled, broken-down, decaying, decrepit, dilapidated, down-at-heel, faded, mangy, rundown, scrubby, scruffy, seedy, shabby, shoddy, sleazy, tattered, tatty, threadbare.

Informal: tacky.

Slang: ratty.

Idioms: all the worse for wear, gone to pot, past cure.

Translations

قَذِر، كامِد

špinavýzašlý

snavsettrist

schäbig

minable

skítugur; grámuskulegur

sporcizia sporco

apsmurgęsapsmurgimasnutriušęs

nokvēpisnoputējisnotraipīts

skitten snusket

ošumelý

izbe gibikasvetli

肮脏的邋遢的

dingy

[ˈdɪndʒɪ] ADJ (dingier (compar) (dingiest (superl))) (= shabby) [furniture, decor] → deslustrado, deslucido; (= gloomy) [town, house, room] → sombrío, lóbrego; (= dirty) → sucio

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

dingy

[ˈdɪndʒi] adj [room, furnishings] → miteux/euse, minabledining area n (in room) → coin m repas
the main dining area [restaurant] → la salle de restaurant principaledining car n (British) → wagon-restaurant mdining chair n → chaise f de salle à mangerdining hall n → réfectoire mdining kitchen n → cuisine f avec coin repasdining room n (in house) → salle f à manger; (in hotel) → salle f de restaurantdining room suite n → salle f à manger, ensemble m de salle à mangerdining table dining-table n → table f de la salle à manger

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

ding(e)y

, dinghy

n → Ding(h)i nt; (collapsible) → Schlauchboot nt

dingy

adj (+er) building, room, street, area → düster; (= dirty) → schmuddelig; colour → schmutzig; wallpaper with dingy yellow stripes → Tapeten mit schmutzig gelben Streifen

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

dingy

[ˈdɪn(d)ʒɪ] adj (shabby) → squallido/a; (dark) → scuro/a, tetro/a

dingy

(ˈdindʒi) adjective

dull; faded and dirty-looking. This room is so dingy.

ˈdinginess noun

References in classic literature ?

They were for the most part dingy, but as they were nearly always open it did not make so much difference.

View in context

It was dark and very dingy. It was lit by a skylight.

View in context

But she would mar his pleasure: she would go in her dingy rags, with her faded face, once as handsome as the best, with her little child that had its father's hair and eyes, and disclose herself to the Squire as his eldest son's wife.

View in context

Every one chattered, argued, discussed, disputed, applauded, from the gentleman lounging upon the barroom settee with his tumbler of sherry-cobbler before him down to the waterman who got drunk upon his "knock-me-down" in the dingy taverns of Fell Point.

View in context

Those dingy, fire-warmed, used-up, green-tinted, ill-natured souls--how COULD their envy endure my happiness!

View in context

Here and there would be a bridge crossing a filthy creek, with hard-baked mud shores and dingy sheds and docks along it; here and there would be a railroad crossing, with a tangle of switches, and locomotives puffing, and rattling freight cars filing by; here and there would be a great factory, a dingy building with innumerable windows in it, and immense volumes of smoke pouring from the chimneys, darkening the air above and making filthy the earth beneath.

View in context

His son obeyed, and the crowd approached; they were bawling and hissing round a dingy hearse and dingy mourning coach, in which mourning coach there was only one mourner, dressed in the dingy trappings that were considered essential to the dignity of the position.

View in context

Giry, in her faded shawl, her worn shoes, her old taffeta dress and dingy bonnet.

View in context

Second, X , huge, dingy; the canvas cracked and smoked; a yellow sky, sooty clouds; no sun, no azure; the verdure of the suburbs blighted and sullied--a very dreary scene.

View in context

How different is this marvel observed from a raft, from what it is when one observes it through the dingy windows of a railway-station in some wretched village while he munches a petrified sandwich and waits for the train.

View in context

Snow is falling today, yellow and dingy. It fell yesterday, too, and a few days ago.

View in context

At the end of the yard a dark mass, tinted with a dingy blue by the morning dawn, rose before him, its dark outlines standing out in contrast to the houses already illuminated by the pale light of early morning.

dingy

dingy

din·gy 1

ding·y 2

dingy

dingy

din•gy

dingy

dingy

dingy

dingy

ding(e)y

dingy

dingy

dingy

din·gy¹

ding·y²