Meaning
Smelly in a stale, unwashed way — giving off body odour, or a musty, sour, shut-up smell. Said of a person who badly needs a bath, of clothes that were not dried properly and have gone rank, or of a closed-up, airless room, 'frowsy' is a blunt everyday word for an unpleasant staleness. It curls the nose, and it is used both plainly, of a genuine bad smell, and as an insult for someone dirty and neglected, close in sense to 'frownzy', the sour reek of things unwashed and long shut away.
Examples
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Go bathe, yuh smell frowsy.
Go bathe; you smell of body odour.
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Di clothes dry inside an turn frowsy.
The clothes dried indoors and went musty.
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Open di window, di room frowsy.
Open the window; the room smells stale.
Origin
From English dialect 'frowsy/frowzy' (musty, unkempt); kept vivid in Jamaican use for body/stale odour. See [[nyampi]].
How it’s used
Smelly/stale — body odour or a musty shut-up smell. See [[nyampi]].