dustier; dustiest
1
: covered or abounding with dust
2
: consisting of dust : powdery
3
: resembling dust
4
: lacking vitality : dry
dusty scholarship
5
British : unsatisfactory
used especially in the phrases dusty answer and not so dusty
dustily adverb
dustiness noun

Examples of dusty in a Sentence

He pulled dusty candlesticks from the shelf. His new tie is a dusty blue.
Recent Examples on the Web There may be battle scenes to die for—Toulon, Austerlitz, Borodino, and Waterloo, plus a dusty glimpse of combat beside the Pyramids—but entire campaigns, elsewhere, are elided or brushed off in a line of dialogue. Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 22 Nov. 2023 The five neutral colors will be right at home in any space: seadrift, Montauk white, dusty charcoal, gray wash, and brown wash. Kristina McGuirk, Better Homes & Gardens, 20 Nov. 2023 These observations have prioritized monitoring dust, however—so the instrument has so far focused on particularly dusty regions such as northern Africa and Central Asia. Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 17 Nov. 2023 Also, make sure to wipe the data from your dusty smartphones and laptops with a factory reset before selling or otherwise getting rid of them. WIRED, 16 Nov. 2023 Choose from 21 colors including dusty gray, indigo blue, olive green, and more. Rachel Simon, Travel + Leisure, 13 Nov. 2023 But Mars is a dusty planet, and the low-dust hypothesis could be ruled out because S1222a was localized to a region covered with reddish dust. Elizabeth Rayne, Ars Technica, 5 Nov. 2023 Space is a dark, dusty place — to the human eyeball. Kate Larue, New York Times, 5 Nov. 2023 Each swipe of the mop proves its usefulness, a glistening arc on a floor that a second ago looked O.K. but now is revealed to have been dusty and dull all along. Clare Sestanovich, The New Yorker, 6 Nov. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dusty.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of dusty was in the 13th century

Dictionary Entries Near dusty

Cite this Entry

“Dusty.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dusty. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023.

Kids Definition

dusty

adjective
dustier; dustiest
1
: filled or covered with dust
2
: resembling dust
dusty soil
dustily adverb
dustiness noun

More from Merriam-Webster on dusty

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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