1786, “Letter X”, inExaminator’s Letters, or, A Mirror for British Monopolists and Irish Financiers, Dublin: Printed, and sold by the booksellers,→OCLC,pages41–42:
John Hanſell, of Bridport, in Dorſetſhire, ſail-cloth manufacturer, ſtates in his evidence, that the ſale of coarſe woollen cloath was not then a twentieth part of what it had been for the common people formerly, owing to their ſubſtituting Ruſſiadrabs and ravenſduck as garments in place of the coarſe woollens.
[T]he carpet is a Brussels, of rather a small pattern, in various shades of greens anddrabs.
1854, Thomas Love, “To Dye Silk Drabs in the Lavender Vat Different Ways”, inThe Art of Cleaning, Dyeing, Scouring, and Finishing, on the Most Approved English and French Methods.[…], London:Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans,[…],→OCLC, part I (The Art of Cleaning and Dyeing Silk),page78:
Let your lightdrabs be next. Do not put anything in your liquor after your greys, except a pint of this ebony liquor; stir it up well, and handle in your silks for lightdrab for twenty minutes, and they are done; [...] The nextdrab you dye in the vat is a dark stonedrab.
They looked very well in their simple suits, Meg in silverydrab, with a blue velvet snood, lace frills, and the pearl pin; Jo in maroon, with a stiff, gentlemanly linen collar, and a white chrysanthemum or two for her only ornament.
The sins of Kalamazoo are neither scarlet nor crimson. / The sins of Kalamazoo are a convict gray, a dishwaterdrab. / And the people who sin the sins of Kalamazoo are neither scarlet nor crimson. / They run todrabs and grays—and some of them sing they shall be washed whiter than snow—and some: We should worry.
He wore a pretty large wig, which had once been white, but was now of a browniſh yellow; his coat was one of thoſe modeſt-coloureddrabs which mock the injuries of duſt and dirt; [...]
1860 September, J. Crawford Wilson, “Brutus”, inFrank Leslie’s Monthly, volume VII, number 3, New York, N.Y.: [Frank Leslie] Publication Office, 19, City Hall Square,→OCLC,page237, column 1:
[T]o please her he promised to lay aside the universaldrabs for the wedding day and to case his extremities in modern black cloth continuations, with an express stipulation that thedrabs should again be in active service on the subsequent morning.
1907 October, Jane Armstrong, “Woman Architect who Helped Build the Fairmont Hotel”, inThe Architect and Engineer of California, volume X, number 3, San Francisco; Los Angeles, Calif.: Architect & Engineer Co.,→OCLC,page70:
I knew thatJulia Morgan was a Beaux Arts graduate, and through my mind there trooped a bizarre procession of girls who have studied one thing or another in Paris. They usually come home dressed in a color scheme of the impressionistic school, with their talent merely a by-product of a wonderful new set of mannerisms and a novel and fuzzy way of doing their hair. Yet here was a young woman dressed indrab and severely hair pinned.
The slimy little causeway had dropped into the river by a slow process of suicide, and two or three stumps of piles and a rusty iron mooring-ring were all that remained of the departed Break-Neck glories. [...] [T]hrough three-fourths of its rising tides the dirty indecorousdrab of a river would come solitarily oozing and lapping at the rusty ring, [...]
Watership Down review – CGI rabbits can't save this Christmas turkey. The 1970s cartoon traumatised generations of children, but the new version is tame,drab and deeply unsatisfying. What, really, was the point?
Adrab office block sandwiched between a pub and a branch of Starbucks was a secret base of spy agency GCHQ, it has been confirmed. The anonymous building opposite St James's Park Tube station in central London was used by British spooks for 66 years.
The coffee presently appeared, brought not as usual by the footman, in scarlet anddrab, but by the old butler, in threadbare but well-brushed black, [...]
[T]he man was about fifty-two—had a ſmall cane under his arm—was dreſs'd in a darkdrab-colour'd coat, waiſtcoat, and breeches, which ſeem'd to have seen ſome years ſervice—they were ſtill clean, and there was a little air of frugalpropretè throughout him.
Year by year they will find her with even thinner hair, sharper shoulders,drabber cheeks; and he, looking upon her with the forgiveness of complete indifference, will say to himself, "She is bad, and she is ugly; I was well rid of her!"
Have you no longing ever to be free? / In warm, electric days to run a-muck, / Ranging like some mad dinosaur, / Your fiery heart at war / With this strange world, the city's restless ruck, / Where alldrab things that toil, save you alone, / Have life; [...]
Furniture is comical. It responds to humans. For some it looks itsdrabbest, for others it sparkles and looks, if not handsome, at any rate comfortable.
1593, Gabriell Haruey [i.e.,Gabriel Harvey],Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse. A Preparative to Certaine Larger Discourses, IntituledNashes S. Fame, London:[…]Iohn Wolfe,→OCLC; republished asJohn Payne Collier, editor,Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse.[…] (Miscellaneous Tracts. Temp. Eliz. & Jac. I;no. 8),[London]:[s.n.],[1870],→OCLC,page150:
[C]ertainly thou deſireſt but thy right, that canſt read a rhetorique, or logique lecture toHecuba in the art of raving, and inſtructTiſiphone herſelfe in her owne gnaſhing language. Other he, or ſhe,drabs of the curſteſt or vengeableſt rankes, are but dipped or dyed in the art; not ſuch a belldam in the whole kingdome of frogges, as thy croking, and moſt clamorous ſelfe.
[O]ld Lad of War; thou that were wont to be as hot as a turn-ſpit, as nimble as a fencer, & as lowzy as a ſchoole-maiſter; now thou art put to ſilence like a Secretarie? [...] who are your centinells in peace and ſtand ready charg'd to giue warning; with hems, hums, & pockey-coffs; only your Chambers are licenc'ſt to play vpon you, andDrabs enow to giue fire to 'em.
1660, James Hovvell [i.e.,James Howell], “Diharebion Cymraeg, VVedu ei Cysiethu yn Saisoneg = British, or Old Cambrian Proverbs, and Cymraecan Adages, Never Englished, (and Divers Never Published) before.[…]”, inLexicon Tetraglotton, an English–French–Italian–Spanish Dictionary:[…], Printed by J[ohn] G[rismond] for Samuel Thomson[…],→OCLC,page20:
Old provincial society had [...] its brilliant young professional dandies who ended by living up an entry with adrab and six children for their establishment, [...]
1956, J. J. Marric [pseudonym;John Creasey], “Father and Son”, inGideon’s Week, London:Hodder & Stoughton,→OCLC, page154; republished inGideon at Work: Three Complete Novels: Gideon’s Day, Gideon’s Week, Gideon’s Night, New York, N.Y.:Harper & Brothers, publishers,1957,→OCLC,page250:
The doss house emptied during the day; from ten o'clock until five or six in the evening, there was no one there except Mulliver, adrab who did some of the cleaning for him, and occasional visitors.
Experience ſhewes, his Purſe ſhall ſoone grow light, / Whom Dice waſtes in the day,Drabs in the night: / Let all auoyde falſe Strumpets, Dice, and Drinke; / For hee that leaps in Mudde, ſhall quickly ſinke.
1735,Alexander Pope, “[Satires of Dr.John Donne, Dean of St. Paul’s.] The Second Satire of Dr. John Donne.”, inThe Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume II, London:[…] J. Wright, for Lawton Gilliver[…],→OCLC,page49, lines63–64:
Curs'd be the Wretch! ſo venal and ſo vain; / Paltry and proud, asdrabs in Drury-lane.
a.1775,Oliver Goldsmith, “A Description of an Author’s Bed-chamber”, inPoems and Plays.[…], new corrected edition, London: Printed for Messrs. Price[et al.], published1785,→OCLC,page10:
Where the Red Lion ſtaring o'er the way, / Invites each paſſing ſtranger that can pay; / WhereCalvert’s butt, andParſon’s black champaign, / Regale thedrabs and bloods of Drury-lane; [...]
With these counsels, and many others equally valuable, did Papa Wick fortify Bobby ere that last awful night at Portsmouth when the Officers' Quarters held more inmates than were provided for by the Regulations, and the liberty-men of the ships fell foul of the drafts for India, and the battle raged from the Dockyard Gates even to the slums of Longport, while thedrabs of Fratton came down and scratched the faces of the Queen's Officers.
You may ſay, you ſaw him at ſuch a time, marke you mee, / At game, or drincking, ſwearing, ordrabbing, / You may go ſo farre.
1720,[John] Dennis,The Invader of His Country: Or, The Fatal Resentment. A Tragedy.[…], London: Printed for J. Pemberton[…], and J. Watts[…]; and sold by J. Brotherton and W. Meadows[…]; T. Jauncy and A. Dodd[…]; W. Lewis[…], and J. Graves[…],→OCLC, act II, scene iii,page24:
Very fine! ThisSempronius is a bleſſed Perſon indeed! he Games, he Cheats, he Swears, he Drinks, heDrabs; [...]
Let realism have its demonstration, comedy its criticism, or even bawdry its horselaugh at the expense of sexual infatuation, if it must; but to ask us to subject our souls to its ruinous glamour, to worship it, deify it, and imply that it alone makes our life worth living, is nothing but folly gone mad erotically—a thing compared to whichFalstaff's unbeglamored drinking anddrabbing is respectable and rightminded.
He did not relish the apparition of that Katherine, for when it appeared it seemed to bring with it a brother shadow that wore ragged clothes and tangled hair and foul linen; that drank from any flagon anddrabbed with any doxy; that slept in tavern angles through hours of drunkenness; a thing whose fingers pillaged, filched and pilfered when and where they could; a creature that once he saw whenever he stared into a mirror.
a.1746,Jonathan Swift, “VII. Another, Written upon a Window where there was No Writing before.”, inThomas Sheridan, compiler,The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick’s, Dublin.[…] In Nineteen Volumes, new corrected and revised edition, volume VII, London: Printed [by Nichols and Son] forJ[oseph] Johnson [et al.], published1801,→OCLC,page361:
Thanks to my stars, I once can see / A window here from scribbling free! / Here no conceited coxcombs pass, / To scratch their paltrydrabs on glass; / Nor party-fool is calling names, / Or dealing crowns to George and James.
1823,William Cobbett, “Brewing Beer”, inCottage Economy:[…], new edition, London: Printed for J. M. Cobbett,[…],→OCLC, paragraph 30:
The tea drinking has done a great deal in bringing this nation into the state [of] misery in which it now is; and the tea drinking, which is carried on by "dribs" and "drabs;" by pence and farthings going out at a time; this miserable practice has been gradually introduced by the growing weight of the taxes on Malt and on Hops, and by the everlasting penury amongst the labourers, occasioned by the paper-money.
His tone, which contained more than a fewdrabs of sarcasm, was a notch or two shy of disrespectful, and his words, though sharp, were themselves circumspect.
1748,William Brownrigg, “Of the Use of Salt as a Condiment or Pickle”, inThe Art of Making Common Salt, as Now Practised in Most Parts of the World; with Several Improvements Proposed in that Art, for the Use of the British Dominions, London: Printed, and sold by C. Davis,[…];A[ndrew] Millar,[…]; andR[obert] Dodsley,[…],→OCLC, part II (The Art of Preparing White Salt: Appendix),pages166–168:
Thoſe therefore, who are moſt exact in pickling beef for exportation, [...] take their carcaſſes as ſoon as cold, and cut them into proper pieces; and after rubbing each piece carefully with good white ſalt, lay them on heaps in a cool cellar, in adrab with a ſhelving bottom, where they remain for four or five days, 'till the blood hath drained out of the larger veſſels.
When the ſalt is carried into the ſtore-houſe, it is put intodrabs, which are partitions, like ſtalls for horſes, lined at three ſides, and the bottom with boards, and having a ſliding-board on the foreſide to draw up on occaſion. The bottoms are made ſhelving, being higheſt at the back, and gradually inclining forwards; by this means the brine, remaining among the ſalt, eaſily ſeparates and runs from it, and the ſalt in three or four days becomes ſufficiently dry; [...]
In both caſes they let the ſalt remain in the pan till the whole is finiſhed; then they rake it out with wooden rakes, and after it has drained a-while in woodendrabs, it is fit for uſe. The mother-brine, of which there always remains a large quantity in the pan after the ſtrong ſalt is made, as alſo the drainings of thedrabs where the ſalt is put, is reſerved to be boiled up into table-ſalt; [...]
1857 August, W[illia]m C. Dennis, “Salt—Its Uses and Manufacture—Salt Meats. An Inquiry into the Defects of Common Salt in General Use in the United States for Curing Provisions, and on the Subject of Careless Packing and Management of Meats, etc, with Some Hints as to a Remedy”, inJ[ames] D[unwoody] B[rownson] De Bow, editor,De Bow’s Review and Industrial Resources, Statistics, etc.:[…], volume III (New Series; volume XXIII overall), New Orleans, La.; Washington, D.C.:[J. D. B. De Bow],→OCLC,page135:
The Liverpool salt is made from the impure article that is found in the mines of Cheshire, which is transported in vast quantities down the River Mersey, and is dissolved in seawater on the left bank at extensive manufactories opposite to Liverpool. This impure pickle is drawn from the tanks, in which it is dissolved, into large shallow pans, and by a rapid process of boiling it is crystalized—drawn from the pans—the salt placed indrabs or baskets to drain, ready for another charge within 24 hours, except on Sundays; the charge in the pans is allowed 48 hours to crystalize and be drawn.
2012 November 1, Jocelyn Samara D., “Comic 278 - Ch. 12 - Drab”, inRain[4], archived fromthe original on21 January 2020:
Just for those who may not be aware of the term, “drab” is how you might describe a transgendered person (including transsexuals, crossdressers, drag queens, etc.) that is presenting as their birth sex. For instance, if Rain is dressed as a boy, she is dressed in “drab”. My original idea had Ruby on this page too, but that took away from the “drab” theme.
"What do you mean by drows, Chaldea?" "Poison, no less. You lookdrabbed, for sure." "Drabbed?" "Poisoned. But I waste the kalo jib on you, my Gorgious. God bless you for a sick one, say I, and that's a bad dukkerin, the which in gentle Romany means fortune, my Gentile swell."
^Walter W[illiam] Skeat (1910), “DRAB (2)”, inAn Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new (4th) revised and enlarged edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: At theClarendon Press, published1963,→OCLC,page181, column 1.
^See, for example, theVita Caesaris Arelatis (6th century): seeJean-Paul Savignac (2004), “drap”, inDictionnaire français-gaulois, Paris: Editions la Différence,→ISBN, page123.
^Xavier Delamarre (2001), “drappo”, inDictionnaire de la langue gauloise : une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental, Paris: Errance,→ISBN.
Y wydzal gest we znyedrab stoyøcz na zemyø (viditque in somnis scalam stantem super terram), koncem nyeba dosyøgayøcz, a angyoli boze s nyey wstøpuyøcz y støpuyøcz po nyey
[I widział jest we śniedrab stojąc na ziemie, końcem nieba dosięgając a anjoły boże [s niej] wstępując i zstępując po niej.]
And he saw in his sleep aladder standing on the earth, with its end reaching Heaven and heavenly angels climbing and descending on it.
(attested in Lesser Poland)The meaning of this term is uncertain. Possibilities include:
B. Sieradzka-Baziur,Ewa Deptuchowa, Joanna Duska, Mariusz Frodyma, Beata Hejmo, Dorota Janeczko, Katarzyna Jasińska, Krystyna Kajtoch, Joanna Kozioł, Marian Kucała, Dorota Mika, Gabriela Niemiec, Urszula Poprawska, Elżbieta Supranowicz, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, Piotr Szpor, Bartłomiej Borek, editors (2011–2015), “drab”, inSłownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków:IJP PAN,→ISBN
, Oxford:Oxford University Press,1897;“drab1,adj. andn.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
drab (color) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego/drab on the Polish Wikisource.Wikisourcepl