1Of or like a mouse.

1. 1.1 (of hair) of a dull light brown colour.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • The mousy-haired girl was gaining on Lyra fast; in hardly a second she'd bounded over Lyra's head, and stood in front of her, smiling smugly and effectively cutting her off from Tay.
   • The man is described as white, aged 23-25 years-old, 5ft 8ins tall, with a goatee beard and short brown mousy hair.
   • He always made her feel so plain, with her mousy brown hair and dull gray eyes, her light skin that was so frail it sunburned in little under ten minutes in the heat.
   • I remained there for the entire concert, as if in a spelling bee and waiting for my turn, my mousy long brown hair hiding most of my face.
   • He has spotty, pock-marked skin and short, mousy brown hair.
   • He was described as white, clean shaven, in his 20s with collar-length, mousy brown hair and a fresh complexion.
   • He was about my height, with mousy brown hair, caramel coloured eyes and a friendly smile.
   • He is slim with short, mousy brown hair, a spotty, pock-marked complexion and a ring or bar piercing in his right eyebrow.
   • In newspaper photos of missing girls from the seventies, most looked like me: white girls with mousy brown hair.
   • She stood, her dull brown eyes wide and her mousy brown hair fleeing from underneath her cap, expecting thanks for her duty.
   • The second was aged 14 or 15, five foot five inches tall, with short mousy to light brown hair, wearing a blue track suit.
   • On that occasion the thief was said to be aged about 18, 5ft 6ins tall, very thin, with mousy brown hair and was wearing a short black and white patterned coat.
   • Renee's normally cobweb-like cloud of wavy brown hair now fell in a straight, gleaming sheen all the way to her upper back, at last looking more nut-brown than it did mousy.
   • Sinead is white, with blue eyes and mousy brown hair tied back.
   • With longish, mousy brown hair and thick glasses, Bertram is bookish, a sharp contrast to the less formal, hip Poirier.
   • Sarah was 21 years old, small and plump with small brown eyes, mousy hair and a small mouth that often twisted into the most malicious of smiles.
   • I had mousy brown hair and even duller gray eyes.
   • Around my finger I twirled a strand of hair that was no longer a dull mousy brown, but a shiny dark chocolate.
   • The mousy-haired girl just stabbed at her salad and shrugged.
   • The man, who she describes as being in his mid-twenties with a tanned complexion and mousy brown hair, was driving an old Ford Fiesta when he stopped her.

   Synonyms

   lightish brown, brownish, brownish-grey, dun-coloured

   colourless, neutral, drab, dull, lacklustre
2. 1.2 (of a person) shy, timid, and quiet.
   his mousy sister had become a dynamic journalist

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The second the resounding echo of Bryant's door shutting faded, a small, rather mousy looking man poked his head out of an adjacent office.
   • Melissa was sitting next to a smaller, somewhat mousy looking girl.
   • Our teacher had taken sick leave, and the sub was some mousy post-grad who darted glances amongst us as though we were going to jump on him and gnaw his head off anytime soon.
   • The second was a plain, almost mousy girl, dressed in the same style as her mother and with her thin yellow hair pulled back into a tight knot.
   • The Right Wing Aunt is a mousy librarian by day, but at night she's to be found nowhere but the pub.
   • The new governess was a mousy lady who could scarcely control the children - Clarissa knew exactly how to deal with them, Daniel thought morosely.
   • Meanwhile, once-overweight and mousy Rose has trouble believing that any man would find her attractive when a potential suitor enters her life.
   • I looked around the room and finally found this little mousy girl looking at my shyly.
   • It is certainly funny to see Owen towering over that mousey guy.
   • Michelle Monteith, baby-voiced and appropriately mousy as Laura in the first act, manages the transformation in the second with great believability.
   • Jekyll is mousy and mincing, while his alter-ego is an explosion of simian fury.
   • However, one mousy boy awkwardly opened the oak double doors for her.
   • Alfred Marshall, disguising his boldness under a mousy writing style, proposed an even stronger supplement to the land tax.
   • This was something Auria would do, not me, her sensible, level headed, mousy sister who was submissive and docile.
   • The mousy man heard him and barked out a nervous-sounding, high-pitched laugh.
   • ‘Hi,’ Ella said in her mousy voice as she walked into the bathroom.
   • Instead, the mousey British audience just sat there and hoped the problem would resolve itself.
   • She was a vaguely mousy woman in her mid-twenties whose hands couldn't seem to stop fidgeting.
   • One of the English professors, a mousy one, darts in to make some copies.
   • Michael was a somewhat mousy little thing, small, blonde and fair with the lightest smattering of freckles across his nose.
   • Full of intense vulnerability, belligerence and a delicate, mousy charm, Henderson manages to mumble throughout the entire film and still emerge as one of the best reasons to go and see it.
   • Since she looks more like a mousy witness than an aggressive reporter, Elaine has had no trouble fooling them.
   • The timid knock on the door could only be one person, his mousy but efficient secretary trying to get his attention.
   • Young Axel, despite his rocker name, was… well, a nerd, with a round frame and a mousy appearance.
   • Lola decides to try to make the best of her situation and instantly makes friends with mousy Ella.
   • She was a very thin, mousy, slightly stooped woman looking no older than a student.
   • At the beginning of the film, she is a rather mousy secretary, given to wearing neutral colors and a bulky, shapeless winter coat.
   • So how did she feel playing a mousy brunette for a change?
   • This boy was so mousy and timid; he'd been there five minutes and he was already getting on the brunet's nerves.
   • Within moments, a high, squeak-like voice came from the mousy girl behind the desk.
   • She was small and mousy, about a head shorter than me, and she childishly hugged the books she held against her chest like an elementary schoolgirl.
   • Two sisters, one a 15-year-old knockout, the other two years younger, overweight and mousy, are on holidays with their parents.
   • His mousy comments were not forceful, not that of a true leader.
   • Looking at the photo of her at fifteen I don't see an ugly girl - maybe a little young looking, mousy, but waiting to bloom.
   • One spring break on the beaches of Florida, The Incredible Hulk falls in love with a squat mousy girl with the charisma of a supermarket deli tray.
   • She is small and mousey and I can't help but think of all the bad news she must have to give people each day.
   • So - in spite of the fact that she's a very sweet girl and well liked by all who know her, she has the reputation of being mousy, shy and very plain compared to her three cohorts.
   • In the rehearsal studio, Alison Roper looks like the nice girl from Maine that she is: unassuming, hard working, even a little mousy.
   • Next to her were four kids: a cool, perfectly made-up girl, a tall, tan boy, a mousy, shy girl, and another boy who nearly made me fall over.
   • Where Ellen was petite and mousy, Georgia was willowy and exotic.

   Synonyms

   timid, quiet, meek, fearful, timorous, shy, self-effacing, diffident, ineffectual, unassertive, unconfident, unforthcoming, reticent, shrinking, hesitant, withdrawn, introverted, introvert, unobtrusive