MUSTY (mustier, mustiest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: mustier    , mustiest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does musty mean? 

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

1. covered with or smelling of mold

2. stale and unclean smelling

  Familiarity information: MUSTY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MUSTY (adjective)

Comparative: mustier   
Superlative: mustiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Covered with or smelling of mold

Synonyms:

moldy; mouldy; musty

Context example:

a moldy (or musty) odor

Similar:

stale (lacking freshness, palatability, or showing deterioration from age)

Derivation:

must; mustiness (the quality of smelling or tasting old or stale or mouldy)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Stale and unclean smelling

Synonyms:

frowsty; fusty; musty

Similar:

ill-smelling; malodorous; malodourous; stinky; unpleasant-smelling (having an unpleasant smell)

Derivation:

must; mustiness (the quality of smelling or tasting old or stale or mouldy)

 Context examples 

The earth smelled musty and close; but we did not somehow seem to mind, for our attention was concentrated on the Professor.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A colorless, volatile and highly flammable, liquid inorganic compound with a characteristic, musty odor that emits toxic carbon monoxide fumes upon heating.

(Nickel Carbonyl, NCI Thesaurus)

The gamma-isomer of benzene hexachloride, a colorless to white colored, synthetic, crystalline solid with a slight musty odor that emits toxic fumes of hydrochloric acid and other chlorinated compounds when heated to decomposition.

(Lindane, NCI Thesaurus)

The place had the empty and musty feel and smell usual to a dwelling no longer inhabited.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A solid, white, organo-halide carcinogen with a musty odor that consists for 78% of 2,2-Bis(Bromomethyl)-1,3-Propanediol.

(BBMP, NCI Thesaurus)

From this crawling flapping mass of obscene reptilian life came the shocking clamor which filled the air and the mephitic, horrible, musty odor which turned us sick.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In what desert land have you lived, where no one was kind enough to inform you that these fancies which you have so greedily imbibed are a thousand years old and as musty as they are ancient?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It being now pretty late, we took our candles and went upstairs, where we parted with friendly heartiness at his door, and where I found my new room a great improvement on my old one, it not being at all musty, and having an immense four-post bedstead in it, which was quite a little landed estate.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It smelled sour and musty, and by the dim light of the swinging sea-lamp I saw every bit of available wall-space hung deep with sea-boots, oilskins, and garments, clean and dirty, of various sorts.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

There was an inexplicable amount of dust everywhere and the rooms were musty as though they hadn't been aired for many days.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)