dusty

From Middle English dusty, dusti, from Old English dūstiġ, dystiġ, dȳstiġ (“dusty”), equivalent to dust +‎ -y. Cognate with Dutch donzig (“cottony, downy, woolly”), German dunstig (“hazy, misty”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈdʌsti/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌsti
• Homophone: dustee

dusty (comparative dustier, superlative dustiest)

A dusty road in Kenya (1)

1. Covered with dust.

   a dusty carpet

2. Powdery and resembling dust.
3. Grey in parts.
4. (figurative) Old; outdated; stuffily traditional.
   • 2018, Mark A. Kunkel, Allegories for Psychotherapy, Teaching, and Supervision, page 208:

     The very smart practitioners of my acquaintance do not rest their right hand on old dusty knowledge, but bend and move along a ground of being in which they are perpetually on the lookout for what is trusty and true, new and old.

5. (African-American Vernacular, slang) Ugly, disgusting (a general term of abuse)
6. (Britain, slang) ugly, unwell, inadequate, bad (generally used in the negative)
   • 1868, Edmund Yates, The Rock Ahead: A Novel‎, page 21:

     ...the toilet-glass on the table...had probably reflected few such faces as that of the lady calling herself Mrs. Lloyd, who looked attentively into it when she found herself alone and decided that she was not so very dusty, considering

   • 1967, “Jewish Affairs”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 22, page 30:

     One morning, I said to a patient: "How are you today, Mrs. White?" And she replied "Not so dusty - quite well brushed."

   • 2011, Media Lawson-Butler, Thistle in the Wind‎, page 205:

     "Never mind," she ventured, "but thanks for the compliment. You're not so dusty yourself!"

• (covered with dust): dust-ridden

• Dutys, Duyst, study

• dusti

From Old English dūstiġ; equivalent to dust +‎ -y.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdustiː/, /ˈduːstiː/

dusty

1. dusty, dust-covered
2. like dust, powdery

• dust

• English: dusty
• Scots: dusty, disty

• “dū̆stī, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-04.