What's the difference between dowdy and rowdy?

Dowdy


Definition:

  • (superl.) Showing a vulgar taste in dress; awkward and slovenly in dress; vulgar-looking.
  • (n.) An awkward, vulgarly dressed, inelegant woman.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This mixture (also called Innovar) is rapid in action and results in complete suppression of vestibular activity of both normal subjects and those with Ménière's disease as described by Dowdy, et al., in a preliminary report.
  • (2) Its flagship store on Regent Street had the air of a venerable institution - dowdy, British, heedless of what was going on outside its own doors.
  • (3) Now, a two-year refurbishment has transformed a dowdy labyrinth with state-of-the-art lighting, subtle wall colouring and a clever choice of paintings.
  • (4) When I was a boy London was a dowdy place of tea-houses and stale rock cakes where everybody spoke English.
  • (5) New branches of the Women’s Institute , hitherto firmly associated in the national imagination with the dowdy, jam-making elders of rural communities, began to be founded by thirtysomethings in fashionable urban neighbourhoods.
  • (6) But it’s not easy to juggle style and substance in politics, as Martinez discovered when he looked to Capitol Hill for wardrobe inspiration and came up short, discovering that a deliberate dowdiness pervades real-life DC wardrobes .
  • (7) Though the elderly Victoria came to symbolise a dowdy puritanism, the early years of her reign were marked by scandal and assassination attempts.
  • (8) It’s a once-glorious, now-dowdy thoroughfare with a few refulgent granite buildings surrounded by an excess of eyesores.
  • (9) She's said in the past that she did it to avoid being typecast after a succession of dowdy roles, which makes some kind of sense.
  • (10) I hated it,” wrote Katharine Graham , whose family owned the paper for 80 years , deriding it as “plain, dowdy and full of compromises”.
  • (11) The two-year refurbishment has transformed a dowdy labyrinth with state-of-the-art lighting and a clever choice of paintings.
  • (12) Martinez admitted it was a challenge: “The clothes were semi-fitted, not supposed to be sexy, just tailored – but Julia is naturally sexy, so it sometimes came off that way.” Essentially, Hollywood’s version of "dowdy" isn’t dowdy at all, but we applaud Martinez’s efforts.
  • (13) In a newly released Old Spice commercial , a collection of pathetic, dowdy, genderless "momcreatures" stalk their sons on dates and other encounters with young women.
  • (14) Google of course has considerably more resources than dowdy data protection offices and, as the court recognised, a significant influence on the lives of many individuals.
  • (15) But theimage of electric vehicles as dowdy "Noddy" cars has begun to change, due to luxury electric sports cars such as California's Tesla Roadster and the British-designed Lightning GT.
  • (16) When the Beveridge Report, which laid the foundations for the welfare state, was published in 1942, it sold a third of a million copies, dowdy official report though it might have been.

Rowdy


Definition:

  • (n.) One who engages in rows, or noisy quarrels; a ruffianly fellow.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A rowdy fringe took to raiding liquor stores, spraying graffiti and flaunting marijuana.
  • (2) Sure enough, the rowdy crowd in the Fox News audience gave him a lusty boo - the loudest of a rambunctious night and maybe of the entire primary season so far - while Gingrich called him "utterly irrational" for questioning the manner of Bin Laden's killing.
  • (3) On Sunday rowdy crowds, waving Chinese flags, surrounded the government’s headquarters in a show of support for Beijing’s unprecedented decision, criticised by pro-democracy activists and legal experts as a massive blow to Hong Kong’s judicial independence.
  • (4) Chile, backed by their rousing and rowdy red sea of fans, knew they needed to win because of Holland’s superior goal difference.
  • (5) It's not a rowdy place – think the cocktail cognoscenti trading tales over Rolling Stones classics – so come to expand your palate (but squeeze your wallet!).
  • (6) "I went to see Brazil play Sweden in the Silverdome in Detroit in 1994 and despite the presence of rowdy Brazilians, the atmosphere was flat.
  • (7) He had absolute control of a very rowdy crowd without pandering to them at all, and was so delightfully silly that it actually turned them into a pleasant bunch of people.
  • (8) Yesterday, the first session back after half-term break (rowdiness isn't the only thing that makes parliament seem like school), David Cameron welcomed the fact that Miliband had adopted a consensual style: "I thought I might miss Punch and Judy, but this is refreshing!"
  • (9) As he watched the rowdy march pass, Jason Rose cheered in support.
  • (10) Lord Justice Leveson joined in, like the headmaster walking in on a rowdy classroom.
  • (11) In Fairplay we passed up the grill at McCall’s Park Bar – a rowdy tavern packed with hunters and cowboys – in favour of spaghetti at the Valiton Hotel .
  • (12) It is two minutes from the nearest bus stop but the drunks and rowdies never seemed to find it.
  • (13) The chants ranged from innocuous (drinking beer and not wanting to return to work on Monday) to sexist, to outright racist (“I’d rather be a Paki than a grass”), in particular directed towards someone who I can only assume contacted the train manager in relation to the rowdy behaviour of the fans.” Another witness, who wished to remain anonymous, said the fans were not wearing Chelsea colours but were chanting “about how they’d just won the League Cup and how they’re top of the league”.
  • (14) The funniest heckle I’ve ever had At a chain comedy club notorious for rowdy stags and hens, a group of 14 stags decided to turn my set into a Q&A session.
  • (15) The secret service's reputation for rowdy behaviour was reinforced in April 2012 in the runup to Obama's visit to the Caribbean resort of Cartagena in Colombia, where 13 agents and officers were accused of carousing with female foreign nationals at a hotel where they were staying before the president's arrival.
  • (16) It’s special for us to play in this country,” said Zabaleta of the hordes of rowdy supporters that have followed them around Brazil.
  • (17) Candy Crowley, the moderator at Tuesday night's presidential debate, is coming under intense criticism from Romney supporters for the way she intervened in the rowdy dispute between the two presidential candidates over Libya .
  • (18) And the best of Phife’s verses always tended to be based in rowdy, bawdy expression.
  • (19) Until recently, Belgrade was more likely to be visited by younger travellers interrailing around Europe, looking to enjoy its rowdy nightlife, than those out for a city break.
  • (20) "I have the impression from watching Question Time that audiences have got much more rowdy in recent years.