dinginess

English

Etymology

dingy +‎ -ness

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈdɪndʒɪnəs/

Noun

dinginess (usually uncountable, plural dinginesses)

  1. The state or quality of being dingy.
    • 1844, Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman & Hall, Chapter Four, p. 34,
      His nether garments were of a blueish gray—violent in its colours once, but sobered now by age and dinginess—and were so stretched and strained in a tough conflict between his braces and his straps, that they appeared every moment in danger of flying asunder at the knees.
    • 1875, Henry James, A Passionate Pilgrim, Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., Chapter 2, p. 110,
      He was a pitiful image of shabby gentility and the dinginess of “reduced circumstances.”
    • 1918, Booth Tarkington, The Magnificent Ambersons, Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Co., Chapter 31, p. 437,
      The streets were thunderous; a vast energy heaved under the universal coating of dinginess.
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