dustie

dustie (plural dusties)

1. (informal) A miller.
   • 1895, “Operatives Should Proceed to Organize”, in American Miller, volume 23, page 448:

     I do not like to see too much strife between dusties on the short and long system question, as it is liable to cause hard feelings.

   • 1898 February, “The Great Western Rotary Bolter”, in The Roller Mill, volume 16, page 437:

     It is designed to do scalping and grading in a way to satiffy the most fastidious of dusties.

   • 1910 July, “Machinery Exhibits at F.O.M.A. Convention”, in The Operative Miller, volume 15, page 505:

     We believe these exhibitions have been the means of very largely increasing the attendance because the miller now knows if he goes to the convention, he will not only be able to get the experiences of his brother dusties but will see the latest improvements in milling machinery.

   • 1917, The American Miller and Processor, page 394:

     We give this hint as an inducement to the wives and as a warning to the dusties. On Wednesday afternoon of this memorable week all the visitors will go on the excursion to Lake Minnetonka where they will have one of the great pleasure ...

2. (military, slang) A supply petty officer.
   • 1982, Ray Sturtivant, Fleet Air Arm at War, page 14:

     The mess was so overcrowded that hammock-slinging space became the perks of the badgemen the “ jack-dusties” invariably slept in their store-rooms and offices.

   • 1992, J. W. MacKintosh, The Hunts and the Hunted, page 10:

     The 'Dusties' — supply Petty Officers were frantically pumping out the kit, gas masks, kit bags, blankets, army boots, toilet bags, socks, underclothes.

   • 2005, Dave Diss, Dizzy, page 167:

     From time to time I'd get up to the dusties' mess for this or that reason, and became known to the writers and dusties up there.

   • 2010, Graham Hurley, Deadlight:

     Take the Jack Dusties, the stores blokes, they were in our mess.

   • 2015, Alan Allport, Browned Off and Bloody-Minded: The British Soldier Goes to War 1939-1945:

     As soon as I become an officer all the Dusties, Tugs, Knockers, Gingers and Macs will call me 'sir' and conceal their thoughts from me;

3. A dustman.
   • 1984, Local Authority Management - Volume 10, Issue 2, page 36:

     One Council put that principle into practice some five years ago when it changed from a refuse collection system employing its own 'dusties' to one based upon tenders from private contractors.

   • 2003, Geoff Cochrane, Vanilla Wine, page 61:

     His neighbours persist in this behaviour: they dump their unfinished dinners (molten broccoli? the stewed remains of infidels?) in unofficial bags the dusties shun.

   • 2011, R. E. Pritchard, Dickens's England: Life in Victorian Times, page 178:

     Father vos a dustie; – vos at it all his life, and grandfather afore him for I can't tell how long.

4. Someone who scavenges from dustbins.
   • 2006, Redmer Yska, Wellington: Biography of a City, Raupo

     By the 1960s , the 'dusties' had become a Wellington institution as they scaled flights of steps in search of backdoor rubbish bins, a canvas sack over their shoulder. The early start and finish made a job 'on the carts' popular with university ...

5. A recording of music from another era, especially R&B; an oldie.
   • 1995 June 3, Janine McAdams, “On the Radio”, in Billboard, volume 107, number 22, page 34:

     In Los Angeles, listeners can tune in to KACE, the "dusties" station that plays music from the '50s, '60s and '70s;

   • 1999, Ed Hogan, Gospel Synergy Magazine - Volume 1, Issue 3, page 10:

     WGCI 1390 - AM was previously known for playing R & B oldies known as "dusties".

   • 2012, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Chicken Soup for the African American Woman's Soul:

     Leah turned on a radio station that played the dusties— rhythm and blues classics that I had enjoyed all my life.

   • 2019, Micaela Di Leonardo, Black Radio/Black Resistance, page 1:

     The Tom Joyner Morning Show (TJMS), for four hours Monday through Friday, played the music I identified with and wanted to hear—“the best of the hits and dusties.”

6. A duststorm.
   • 2007, John Quinn Olson, Tales From The Wild Blue Yonder *Recipes For Disaster *, page 100:

     Swirling winds in a dustie can hit fifty miles an hour, or more, rising as fast as two-thousand feet per minute.

7. A clump of dust; a dust bunny.
   • 1988, Nora Johnson, Uncharted Places, page 273:

     Sparse iron gray hair, stuck on his egg-shaped head like dusties from the vacuum bag, cold pewter eyes in little round metal-rimmed glasses, a sharp, hard nose, a mouth like a slot.

   • 2011, O. M. James, Uncomfortable Silence, page 94:

     His room was airy with a slight breeze gently blowing in from the top portion of the two-part window which was that had been left ajar for the purpose of refreshing and clearing the dusties.

   • 2012, Alison Maloney, Bright Young Things: Life in the Roaring Twenties, page 134:

     Are the 'dusties' settled in your house? Electrolux will clean them out.

8. A medium-brown color.
   • 1973, Vogue - Volume 162, page 210:

     The orange shades ranged from brilliant to soft; pinks from delicate little-girl hues to strong dusties; yellows were soft buttermilks to ochre; reds ran from scarlets to bloods;

   • 2016, Judith Baker Montano, Judith Baker Montano's Essential Stitch Guide, page 156:

     I chose small floral prints for the garden area and broke them into lights, mediums, dark mediums, and darks, in other words, pastels, dusties, dark dusties, and jewel tones (refer to the Montano Color chart, page 35).

   • 2018, Carlo DeVito, Big Whiskey, page 165:

     A lighter, less expensive version—The White Label—was taken off the market in 2016. But dusties can still be found.

9. A person of mixed race who has a swarthy complexion.
   • 1914, Alfred Paul Karl Eduard Schultz, Race Or Mongrel, page 157:

     There are scarcely any Indo-Europeans of pure blood in Peru, for with the exception of pure Indians in the interior, the population consists of mestizos, Zambos, mulattoes, terceroones, terceroones, quadroons, cholos, musties, fusties, and dusties; crosses between Spaniards and negroes, Spaniards and yellows; crosses between these people and the cholos, musties, and dusties; crosses between mongrels of one kind and mongrels of the other kinds.

   • 1995, Ricardo Cortez Cruz, Five Days of Bleeding: A Novel, page 68:

     Ashy niggas and dusties went everywhere, forgetting about looking dap.

10. A migrant farmer from the dustbowl.
    • 2017, Chris Beckett, America City:

      And pretty much the same time, you started to hear about dusties down in states like California and Arizona: farmers who'd had to leave their farms because of drought, people in towns with no more water.

11. A small zinc ball used for mixing gun powder.
    • 2000, Alfred Dupont Chandler, Stephen Salsbury, Pierre S. Du Pont and the Making of the Modern Corporation, page 8:

      They also spent much time in search of "dusties. " These small zinc balls used for mixing powder were scattered along the east bank of the Brandywine opposite an old mill that had blown up years before.

12. An old person, especially one who is unwilling to change with the times.
    • 1973, In other words, he apparently wanted to shock people into action, action against his enemies, the "dusties" as he calls them., Agriculture-environmental and Consumer Protection Appropriations For 1974, page 786:

      United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Agriculture--Environmental and Consumer Protection Appropriations

    • 2013, Shirley Conran, The Revenge:

      Max and Fizz both felt resentful and indignant: how dare any stupid oldie obscure their happiness by dreary talk of pennies and pensions; how dare the dusties link love with security, matrimony with mortgages, pleasure with prams?

• Eudist, duties, studie, suited