Dictionary

dust off en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (transitive) To remove dust from.
2. (figuratively, transitive) To use something after a long time without it.
   • For the Pleurotus mycelium to digest the used cigarette butts it might have to dust off an unused metabolic move. 2020, Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life, page 203:
   • I think it's time to dust off my old golf clubs, now that I'm retired.
   • "If you're accused of profiling or pretextual stops, you can bring your daily logbook to court and document that pulling over motorists for 'stickler' reasons is part of your customary pattern," Remsberg writes, "not a glaring exception conveniently dusted off in the defendant's case." 2019, Malcolm Gladwell, Talking to Strangers:
3. (slang, transitive) To jilt or desert (a person).
   • Red Sox by the Numbers A “dice girl in a roadside tavern,” she said she shot McNaughton because “he tried to dust me off.”

Forms

Deriveds

dust off a batter · dust off the cobwebs

Translations (18)

es desempolvar (to use something after a long time without it) · es desempolvar (to remove dust from something) · de abstauben (to remove dust from something) · it riesumare (to use something after a long time without it) · ru стряхну́ть пыль (to remove dust from something) · it spolverare (to remove dust from something) · pl odświeżyć (to use something after a long time without it) · pl odświeżać (to use something after a long time without it) · ru стря́хивать пыль (to remove dust from something) · cs oprášit (to use something after a long time without it) · fr dépoussiérer (to remove dust from something) · pl odkurzyć (to remove dust from something) · sv damma av (to use something after a long time without it) · pl odkurzać (to remove dust from something) · pl odkurzać (to use something after a long time without it) · pl odkurzyć (to use something after a long time without it) · sv damma av (to remove dust from something) · pt desempoeirar (to remove dust from something)