Definition of "frowzy"

And then, ſo nice, and ſo genteel; / Such Cleanlineſs from Head to Heel: / No Humours groſs, or frowzy Steams, / No noiſom Whiffs, or ſweaty Streams, / Before, behind, above, below, / Could from her taintleſs Body flow.

1731, [Jonathan Swift], “Strephon and Chloe”, in A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed. […], Dublin, London: […] [William Bowyer] for J. Roberts […], published 1734, page 8

I was terribly afraid, from what I had heard of Blackwater Park, of fatiguing antique chairs, and dismal stained glass, and musty, frowzy hangings, and all the barbarous lumber which people born without a sense of comfort accumulate about them, in defiance of all consideration due to the convenience of their friends.

1859 November 26 – 1860 August 25, [William] Wilkie Collins, “The Narrative of Marian Halcombe, Taken from Her Diary”, in The Woman in White. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, […], published 1860, part I, page 84, column 2

Half the pages of the frazzled directory hanging on a chain in the musty old booth into which I furtively sidled had turned their corners back on themselves. Such books are like frowzy old broads who have been handled by a thousand men.

1983, Peter De Vries, chapter 3, in Slouching Towards Kalamazoo, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., page 34

It is a relief to be rid of him. But a frowzy, fishy smell lingers in his room.

1994, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 8, in The Master of Petersburg, London: Secker & Warburg, page 90