Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Dusty |
DustyAdjective1. Covered with a layer of dusty; "a dusty pile of books". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
"Dusty" is a name that signifies or is derived from: "the stone of Thor". |
Date "dusty" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1120. (references) |
Note: Dusty \Dust"y\, adjective. [Comparative Dustier; superlative Dustiest.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Dusty Well, it is none so dusty, or Not so dusty. I don't call it bad; rather smart. Here dusty is the opposite of neat, and neat = spruce. "None so dusty" or "Not so dusty" means therefore, Not so unspruce, or rather smart. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: DustySynonym: dust-covered (adj). (additional references) |
| Synonym by domain: dustier (transportation). |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Pulverulence | Adjective: powdery, pulverulent, granular, mealy, floury, farinaceous, branny, furfuraceous, flocculent, dusty, sandy, sabulous, psammous; arenose, arenarious, arenaceous; gritty, efflorescent, impalpable; lentiginous, lepidote, sabuline; sporaceous, sporous. |
Uncleanness | Adjective: dirty, filthy, grimy; unclean, impure; soiled; Verb: not to be handled with kid gloves; dusty, snuffy, smutty, sooty, smoky; thick, turbid, dreggy; slimy; mussy. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Dusty |
| English words defined with "dusty": airless ♦ bagasse ♦ close ♦ dust-covered, Dustiness ♦ harmattan ♦ Kamala ♦ loose smut ♦ powder blue, Pulverulent ♦ Rorulent, rosaceous, rose, roseate ♦ stuffy ♦ unaired ♦ water waggon, water wagon, Wood fiber. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "dusty": Airdox, airveyor ♦ Carmelite, crawling horror ♦ Dusty Plasma ♦ impinger ♦ mailly stone ♦ Pie Poudre ♦ Rusty-Fusty ♦ sprays ♦ water infusion. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | And in the end you wind up dyin' all alone on some dusty street (High Noon; writing credit: Carl Foreman) Get Kyle and Dusty over here (Silverado; writing credit: Lawrence Kasdan; Mark Kasdan) Are those dusty jump wings (Band of Brothers; writing credit: Stephen Ambrose; Erik Jendresen) I'm a pushover for him. And Chopin -- well, he's not so dusty, either (A Star Is Born; writing credit: William A. Wellman; Robert Carson) | |
Lyrics | It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day ("Ode to Billy Joe"; performing artist: Bobbie Gentry) Dark and dusty, painted on the sky, ("Take Me Home Country Roads"; performing artist: John Denver) Coming to you, on a dusty road ("Soul Man"; performing artist: Sam & Dave) Dusty words lying under carpets (Talk To Me; performing artist: Stevie Nicks; writing credit: C. Sandford) Oh girl dancin down those DIRTY and DUSTY trails (Roam; performing artist: The B-52's) | |
Clever | Dusty bibles lead to dirty lives. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Rain for a Dusty Summer (1971) Decidedly Dusty (1969) Not So Dusty (1956) Dusty Bates (1947) Not So Dusty (1936) | |
Song Titles | What Have I Done To Deserve This? (performing artist: Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
| ||
Periodicals |
| ||
Music |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Arabian Sea Gets Dusty. Credit: NASA. |  | Magnificant Details in a Dusty Spiral Galaxy. Credit: NASA. |
 | "A dusty road" - White 3/4 ton truck Astro Party of C. V. Hodges. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. Beach grass, seaside goldenrod, and dusty miller. Credit: National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR). |
 | Dusty Phelps, Anthoney Gar, Darrell Apple and Will Thunderhorse, self help housing, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, SD. Credit: USDA. |  | Sprinkling the dusty streets. Caldwell, Idaho. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Dusty mixer" by Carlos P. Commentary: "..." | "Wine rack" by Kevin Hillabolt Commentary: "A picture of our dusty wine rack." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Author | Quotation |
George Meredith | Ah, what a dusty answer gets the soul when hot for certainties in this our life! |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | Donwell Lane is never dusty, and now it is perfectly dry. |
A Christmas Carol | Dickens, Charles | I am sure he loses pleasanter companions than he can find in his own thoughts, either in his mouldy old office, or his dusty chambers |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | In the morning all is streaming, in the afternoon all is dusty. |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | He opened the door of the theatre and halted in the chilly grey light that struggled through the dusty windows |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | Dusty water ran out of his hair and streaked his neck |
Macbeth | William Shakespeare | To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Niger | Climate: Hot, dry, and dusty. (references) |
Burkina Faso | The cooler season, November to February is pleasantly warm and dry (but dusty), with cool evenings. (references) | |
Travel | Nigeria | The dry season in the north is usually dusty from Saharan winds called the Harmattan. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | CARMELITE, n. A mendicant friar of the order of Mount Carmel. As Death was a-rising out one day, Across Mount Camel he took his way, Where he met a mendicant monk, Some three or four quarters drunk, With a holy leer and a pious grin, Ragged and fat and as saucy as sin, Who held out his hands and cried: "Give, give in Charity's name, I pray. Give in the name of the Church. O give, Give that her holy sons may live!" And Death replied, Smiling long and wide: "I'll give, holy father, I'll give thee -- a ride." With a rattle and bang Of his bones, he sprang From his famous Pale Horse, with his spear; By the neck and the foot Seized the fellow, and put Him astride with his face to the rear. The Monarch laughed loud with a sound that fell Like clods on the coffin's sounding shell: "Ho, ho! A beggar on horseback, they say, Will ride to the devil!" -- and thump Fell the flat of his dart on the rump Of the charger, which galloped away. Faster and faster and faster it flew, Till the rocks and the flocks and the trees that grew By the road were dim and blended and blue To the wild, wild eyes Of the rider -- in size Resembling a couple of blackberry pies. Death laughed again, as a tomb might laugh At a burial service spoiled, And the mourners' intentions foiled By the body erecting Its head and objecting To further proceedings in its behalf. Many a year and many a day Have passed since these events away. The monk has long been a dusty corse, And Death has never recovered his horse. For the friar got hold of its tail, And steered it within the pale Of the monastery gray, Where the beast was stabled and fed With barley and oil and bread Till fatter it grew than the fattest friar, And so in due course was appointed Prior. G.J. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Dusty" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 94.98% of the time. "Dusty" is used about 756 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 94.98% | 718 | 9,359 |
| Noun (proper) | 5.02% | 38 | 55,818 |
| Total | 100.00% | 756 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "dusty" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Dusty | First name Female | 3,000 | 2,082 |
| Dusty | First name Male | 7,000 | 832 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
| "Dusty" is a name that signifies or is derived from: "the stone of Thor". | |||
| The following table summarizes names related to "Dusty." | |||
| Name | Gender | Language | Related Name |
| Dustin | Male | English | N/A |
| Dusty | Male, Female | English | Dustin |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
Expressions using "dusty": be dusty ♦ dusty deck ♦ dusty factor ♦ Dusty miller ♦ dusty seed ♦ dusty treat ♦ get dusty ♦ it is double dusty to me ♦ not so dusty. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "dusty": dusty-blank, dusty-faced, dusty-green, dusty-looking, dusty-robed. | |
Ending with "dusty": once-dusty, pollen-dusty. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "dusty"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | si pluhur (pulverulent), me pluhur, i pluhurosur (powdery), i përhimë (dun, greyish, grizzle, grizzled, grizzly, neutral, platinum blond, taupe), i murrët (taupe). (various references) | |
Arabic | كالغبار, مغبر, غباري. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | скучен (arid, dead alive, drear, dryasdust, dull, dumb, heartbreaking, heavy, humdrum, insipid, jejune, jogtrot, long, long winded, long-spun, moldy, monotonous, mouldy, mousey, plodding, pokey, ponderous, prosaic, prosy, slow, soggy, stodgy, stuffy, tedious, uninspired, uninteresting, unvaried, vapid, weariful, wearisome), прашен, пепеляв (pasty). (various references) | |
Chinese | 滿身塵埃 , 多灰尘. (various references) | |
Czech | zaprášený. (various references) | |
Danish | støvet (powdery). (various references) | |
Dutch | stoffig (powdery). (various references) | |
Esperanto | polva. (various references) | |
Farsi | گردوخاکی . (various references) | |
Finnish | tomuinen (powdery), pölyinen (powdery). (various references) | |
French | poussiéreux. (various references) | |
German | staubig (powdery). (various references) | |
Greek | κονιώδης (powdery, pulverulent), σκονισμένοσ (fuzzy), σκονισμένος, θαμπός (dim). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מעופר, מאובק, עפרורי (dust like, earthy, gritty), אביק (buttonhole, pipe, powdery, tube), אבקי (powdery). (various references) | |
Hungarian | sivár (bald, barren, bleak, desolate, dingy, drear, dreary, gaunt, humdrum, meagre, penurious, sullen), poros (hand-me-down, powdery, pulverulent), porlepte, unalmas (bald, boring, cut and dried, dry, dull, groaty, grotty, heavy, humdrum, insipid, languid, muzzy, pokey, prosaic, prosy, repetitious, tedious, tiresome, tiring, witless), szürke (commonplace, dingy, drab, flat, Gray, grey, mousy, to lead a drab existence), porszerű (powdery, pulverulent). (various references) | |
Indonesian | berdebu (fuggy), berabu. (various references) | |
Italian | polveroso (powdery). (various references) | |
Korean | 먼지 투성이 (Dustier, Dustiest). (various references) | |
Manx | leoiragh (ashy), joanlagh (drizzle, Scotch mist), joanagh (powdery). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ustyday.(various references) | |
Portuguese | pulverulento (powdery, pulverulent), poeirento (powdery), empoeirado, árido (barren, chaffy, devastated, dry, dryasdust, jejune, sterile, thirsty, waste). (various references) | |
Romanian | vag (dim, distant, dull, evasive, evasively, faint, general, hazy, indefinable, indefinite, indeterminate, indistinct, lax, loose, loosely, misty, muddy, nebulous, remote, shadowy, sketchy, slight, vague, washy), pulverulent (powdery, pulverulent), prãfuit (musty, old fashioned, stale), plin de praf, neprecis (doubtful, lax, loose, neutral), neinteresant (arid, dry, dull, flat, jejune, languorous, uneventful), indefinit (vague), colbãit (dusted, musty), banal (banal, cheap, commonplace, daily, everyday, hackneyed, humdrum, indifferent, indistinctive, insipid, mediocre, puerile, small, threadbare, trite, trivial, unimaginative), agitaţie (ado, agitation, bustle, clutter, commotion, emotion, excitement, ferment, fermentation, fever, flurry, flutter, fret, go, haste, inquietude, nervousness, perturbation, restlessness, riotousness, roughness, squirm, stir, trepidation, unrest, vexation, working). (various references) | |
Russian | неопределенный (atemporal, chancy, hazy, iffy, imponderable, imprecise, indecisive, indefinite, indeterminate, inexplicit, infinite, infinitive, lax, suspenseful, uncertain, undefined, undetermined, unspecified, unsure, vague), мелкий (fine, minute, paltry, peanut politician, pettifogging, petty, piddling, potty, shallow, shoal, small minded, small time, small-time, two-by-four), пыльный. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | prašnjav (powdery). (various references) | |
Spanish | polvoriento (powdery, pulverulent). (various references) | |
Swedish | dammig. (various references) | |
Thai | ก้น (arris, arse, ass, bazoo, boodie, boody, bottom, bum, buns, butt, caboose, duff, gazoo, keester, keyster, khyber pass, kiester, kyber pass, labonza, rusty-dusty). (various references) | |
Turkish | tozlu (powdery, pulverulent), toz gibi (powdery), tatsız (arid, chippy, disagreeable, distasteful, dull, flat, flavorless, flavourless, frail, insipid, milk and water, objectionable, queasy, savorless, savourless, sticky, tame, tasteless, ugly, unamusing, uncomfortable, uncongenial, ungracious, unpalatable, unpleasant, unsweetened, unwelcome, vapid, watery), sıkıcı (arid, bald, boring, burdensome, constringent, cut and dried, damnable, dead alive, disconcerting, ditch water, ditchwater, drab, dry, dryasdust, dull, gaunt, gloomy, grave, grotty, humdrum, inanimate, insipid, irksome, oppressive, poky, ponderous, prose, prosy, slow, sluggish, soul-destroying, soulless, stodgy, stuffy, tedious, tiresome, trying, uncongenial, unexeciting, unpleasant, unreadable, unsensational, vapid, waste, watery, wearisome), belirsiz (ambiguous, backhanded, clouded, cloudy, cloudyly, dubious, equivocal, foggy, fuzzy, hazy, in the balance, indefinable, indefinite, indescribable, indeterminate, indistinct, inglorious, lax, misty, obscure, off color, off colour, precarious, shadowy, uncertain, unclear, undefined, undetermined, unsettled, vague). (various references) | |
Turkmen | tozanlamak (become dusty), зaссalak (become dusty), зaсjarmak (get dusty), зaсamak (get dusty). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | сірувато-брунатний (dun), сухий (arid, brut, chilly, drained, dried, dry, dryasdust, saharan, saharian, sear, sere, withered), порошковий, пильний (alert, attentive, awake, circumspect, circumspective, hawk-eyed, open-eyed, sleepless, staring, vigilant, ware, wide awake). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | vô vị (arid, banal, drily, dry, dryasdust, dryly, insipid, milk and water, platitudinarian, platitudinous, savourless, tame, tasteless, unsavoury, watery), tàm tạm (passably, tolerable), lờ mờ (adumbration, dim, dreamy, dubious, indeterminate, indistinct, vague), không có gì lý thú mơ hồ, không đến nỗi tồi, bụi rậm (covert, scrub), đầy bụi nhỏ tơi như bụi khô như bụi khô khan. (various references) | |
Welsh | llychlyd. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Dusty" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Custy, daust, destly, Deusto, dicty, Disctly, disty, dixty, dotsy, dst, ducti, ducty, duesy, Duetti, dugty, dunst, Dunstay, dupty, durty, dusey, Duthy, dutty, dutys, Justy, ousty. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "dusty" (pronounced du"stē) |
| 4 | -u" s t ē | crusty, gusty, lusty, musty, rusty, trusty. |
| 3 | -s t ē | amnesty, angioplasty, Beastie, bloodthirsty, Christie, Christy, dishonesty, dynasty, feisty, frosty, hasty, honesty, majesty, misty, modesty, nasty, sixty, tasty, testy, thirsty, travesty, twisty. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: study. | |
| Words within the letters "d-s-t-u-y" | |
-1 letter: dust, duty, stud. | |
-2 letters: sty, uts. | |
-3 letters: us, ut. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-s-t-u-y" | |
+1 letter: studly, sturdy. | |
+2 letters: custody, dustily, restudy. | |
+3 letters: bodysuit, custardy, dactylus, disunity, duvetyns, dyestuff, industry, mustardy, outstudy, sedulity, studying, stupidly, sturdily, sudatory, unstayed, unsteady. | |
+4 letters: absurdity, assiduity, autodynes, autolysed, bodysuits, curtseyed, desultory, dryasdust, duvetynes, dyestuffs, outdoorsy, outstayed, outyields, studiedly, stupidity, tediously, yuletides. | |
+5 letters: byproducts, candytufts, courtyards, disputably, disquietly, disutility, dryasdusts, restudying, seminudity, studiously, understory, understudy, unsteadily. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Names: Frequency 14. Names: Derived from 15. Expressions 16. Expressions: Internet | 17. Translations: Modern 18. Derivations 19. Rhymes 20. Anagrams | 21. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
