Thursday, October 17, 2013

blowzy

blowzy \BLOU-zee\, adjective:

1. having a coarse, ruddy complexion.
2. disheveled in appearance; unkempt.

I have seen scattered around the apartment photographs of a Gertrude Stein who wears her hair in a massive topknot, loose,blowzy, somewhat in disarray.
-- Monique Truong, The Book of Salt, 2003
She restores her make-up there: she looks hot and blowzy. Her lipstick has bled into the soft skin round her mouth. Hairpins have sprung out. Her nose and eyelids shine.
-- A.S. Byatt, "Baglady," Elements, 1998

The origin of blowzy is uncertain, though it was perhaps once a cant term. It entered English in the 1700s.

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