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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
nondescript
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a nondescript gray suit
▪ The detective drives a nondescript blue Ford, perfect for observing people unnoticed.
▪ The only people in the waiting room were a couple of rather nondescript elderly ladies.
▪ They were an average family living a boring life in a nondescript little house in the suburbs.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Diana cut a nondescript figure in her checked shirt, her sister's anorak, cords and wellington boots.
▪ Further to the right the cliff becomes rather nondescript until a shallow, right-facing corner offers access to a fine steep wall.
▪ He would show the secret symmetries in a nondescript life.
▪ Nothing wrong with it, but at first I thought it was nondescript, and then I thought it felt weird.
▪ Now, he wrote, it is in a little room in a nondescript Victorian terraced house in a side-street in South London.
▪ Yet this nondescript clay pot endures.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
nondescript

nondescript \non"de*script\, a. [Pref. non- + L. descriptus described.]

  1. Not hitherto described; hence, of no recognizable type or class; odd; abnormal; unclassifiable.

  2. Dull or uninteresting; undistinguished.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
nondescript

1680s, "not hitherto described," in scientific usage, coined from non- + Latin descriptus, past participle of describere (see describe). General sense of "not easily described or classified" is from 1806.

Wiktionary
nondescript

a. 1 (context biology now rare English) Not described (in the academic literature); undescribed, unidentified. 2 Without distinguishing qualities or characteristics; unexceptional. n. An undistinguished, unexceptional person or thing.

WordNet
nondescript
  1. adj. lacking distinct or individual characteristics; dull and uninteresting; "women dressed in nondescript clothes"; "a nondescript novel" [syn: characterless]

  2. n. a person is not easily classified and not very interesting

Usage examples of "nondescript".

The nondescript office and factory buildings that had lined the autostrada gave way to long cracked-tiled divisions screening the rustic peace of the countryside.

There was no reason why he should associate three nondescript, bedraggled travelers with a notorious case of murderand yet I had felt panic well up under my diaphragm when he glanced at me.

Otherwise he was a stocky nondescript man in loose black, although the Belter thought there might be soft armor beneath it.

The original plan had been to lure the local authorities away with the hydrofoil, leaving Raoul and his team to do a full investigation down here in secret, then make their escape in the clunky, nondescript houseboat.

It was a nondescript building made from a high-density metal stone amalgamation with slim recessed vertical windows, the kind of office block that would be rented by a small company going nowhere.

Alighting from the limousine, the director held the door open for Armister-a somewhat nondescript little man with a sallowish complexion and pinched cheeks.

He danced a few stiff steps, which made the water gush out of his tattered moccasins, then doffed his nondescript cap and nodded his scalpless head in salutation to the commander.

He smiled explosively, changing suddenly from nondescript to swarthily good-looking.

Through the telephoto lens I snatched his image, learned him: balding, grey-haired, plain features, in nondescript thrift-shop jacket and pants, dull brown shoes.

Most of his receipts are about gold, silver and nondescript inks, with directions for making a great variety for secret writing and defacing.

Eventually he was standing fifteen feet behind an unsuspecting Villiers, who stood speaking to a Mithraist priest and a nondescript girl.

Still in uniform, he was, as always, outwardly nondescript with several layers of shirttails out and uncombed hair.

On Darjiling station was the usual crowd of Lepchas, Nepalis, Eurasians, Sikkimese, Bengalis, nondescripts, and a scattering of Europeans, and there were certainly police spies in the crowd, some of whom studied our luggage labels.

Each was attractive in her own way and all had somehow latched onto the Taos uniform of old jeans and nondescript top.

He had an appointment with Roland Dockery, who was the person in the Amtrak bureaucracy stuck with handling such nondescript problems as Leaphorn represented.