DUSTY (dustier, dustiest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: dustier    , dustiest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dusty mean? 

• DUSTY (adjective)
  The adjective DUSTY has 2 senses:

1. covered with a layer of dust

2. lacking originality or spontaneity; no longer new

  Familiarity information: DUSTY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DUSTY (adjective)

Comparative: dustier   
Superlative: dustiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Covered with a layer of dust

Synonyms:

dust-covered; dusty

Context example:

a dusty pile of books

Similar:

covered (overlaid or spread or topped with or enclosed within something; sometimes used as a combining form)

Derivation:

dust (fine powdery material such as dry earth or pollen that can be blown about in the air)

dustiness (the state of being covered with dust)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lacking originality or spontaneity; no longer new

Synonyms:

cold; dusty; moth-eaten; stale

Context example:

stale news

Similar:

unoriginal (not original; not being or productive of something fresh and unusual)

 Context examples 

In the new study, Spitzer set its heat-seeking infrared eyes on the dusty star NGC 2547-ID8, which is about 35 million years old and lies 1,200 light-years away in the Vela constellation.

(Spitzer Telescope Witnesses Asteroid Smashup, NASA)

When summer came on, he elected to sweat out a hot and dusty existence in the city and to toil incessantly.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

These were, I shortly found, connected almost solely with the dusty nature of the job, and of the consequent thirst engendered in the operators.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The rings are being pulled into Saturn by gravity as a dusty rain of ice particles under the influence of Saturn’s magnetic field.

(Saturn is Losing Its Rings, NASA)

"And what is special about this observation is that this is the most distant dusty galaxy we have ever seen in an unobstructed way."

(ALMA spots most distant dusty galaxy hidden in plain sight, National Science Foundation)

I followed him to the top of a very lofty stair, and there, right under the slates, were a couple of empty, dusty little rooms, uncarpeted and uncurtained, into which he led me.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But every decade or so, something unpredictable happens: A series of runaway storms breaks out, covering the entire planet in a dusty haze.

(Global Storms on Mars Launch Dust Towers Into the Sky, NASA)

Donwell Lane is never dusty, and now it is perfectly dry.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The Herschel Space Observatory has uncovered a weird ring of dusty material while obtaining one of the sharpest scans to date of a huge cloud of gas and dust, called NGC 7538.

(Herschel sees budding stars and a giant, strange ring, NASA)

He arrived at Shelly Hot Springs, tired and dusty, on Sunday night.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)