handsomishadj.
/ˈhansəmɪʃ/, /ˈhansm̩ɪʃ/, U.S. /ˈhæn(t)səmɪʃ/ Somewhat handsome (in various senses); esp. (of a man) reasonably good-looking.
ΚΠ
1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison VI. l. 304 He is a fine, jolly, hearty, handsome-ish man.
1833 T. C. Croker My Village iii. 49 ‘How did she come, in her own carriage?’ ‘A handsomish Barush, Sir.’
1872 Cornhill Mag. July 108 When I gave you my girl—in a handsomish way, I take it—I didn't go to give her to a fellow that would take her straight off on the road to ruin.
1898 Chapman's Mag. Nov. 306 He was..clever and handsomish.
1924 I. Goldberg & A. Livingston tr. V. B. Ibáñez Torrent vi. 129 A dull, handsomish sort of girl, dressed up in clothes that did cruel injustice to a peasant beauty.
1962 S. Plath Jrnl. (2000) 665 Looked through album of all daughters—bright, lively, pretty, with halfstewed, handsomeish dark husbands.
2005 I. Rose J.A.P. Chron. 66 Phil was a handsomish man somewhere in his early forties, with salt-and-pepper hair.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
adj.1753