From Middle English dusty, dusti, from Old English dūstiġ, dystiġ, dȳstiġ (“dusty”), equivalent to dust + -y. Cognate with Dutch donzig (“cottony, downy, woolly”), German dunstig (“hazy, misty”).
Meanings
Covered with dust.
a dusty carpet
On a cold morning in Abilene, Texas, a column of 18-wheelers crawls down bumpy, waterlogged roads, past cattle grazing on dusty shrubs. 2025 December 11, Charlie Campbell, Andrew R. Chow and Billy Perrigo, “The Architects of AI Are TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year”, in Time:
The very smart practitioners of my acquaintance do not rest their right hand on old dusty knowledge, but bend and move along a ground of being in which they are perpetually on the lookout for what is trusty and true, new and old. 2018, Mark A. Kunkel, Allegories for Psychotherapy, Teaching, and Supervision, page 208:
(qualifier:African-American Vernacular, slang) Ugly, disgusting (a general term of abuse).
(UK, in negative constructions, slang) Ugly, unwell, inadequate, bad.
"Never mind," she ventured, "but thanks for the compliment. You're not so dusty yourself!" 2011, Media Lawson-Butler, Thistle in the Wind, page 205:
...the toilet-glass on the table...had probably reflected few such faces as that of the lady calling herself Mrs. Lloyd, who looked attentively into it when she found herself alone and decided that she was not so very dusty, considering 1868, Edmund Yates, The Rock Ahead: A Novel, page 21:
One morning, I said to a patient: "How are you today, Mrs. White?" And she replied "Not so dusty - quite well brushed." 1967, “Jewish Affairs”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 22, page 30:
fi pölyinen (powdery and resembling dust) · pdt stoffich (covered with dust) · fi tomuinen (powdery and resembling dust) · sh praškast (powdery and resembling dust) · es polvoriento (covered with dust) · pt empoeirado (covered with dust) · it impolverato (covered with dust) · txb tweyetstse (covered with dust) · io polvoza (covered with dust) · gd dustach (grey in parts) · es polvoroso (covered with dust) · vi bụi bặm (covered with dust) · be упы́лены (covered with dust) · xal шората (covered with dust) · az tozlu (covered with dust) · cy llychlyd (covered with dust) · chr ᎪᏍᏚᎭᎢ (covered with dust) · izh pöllykäs (covered with dust) · eo polva (covered with dust) · pl zgaszony (grey in parts) · bg прашен (covered with dust) · ru запорошённый (covered with dust) · ms berhabuk (covered with dust) · tyv доозуннуг (covered with dust) · de staubig (powdery and resembling dust) · uk пи́льний (covered with dust) · ru запылённый (covered with dust) · fi tomuinen (covered with dust) · tsg mabagunbun (covered with dust) · hu poros (covered with dust) · cs zaprášený (covered with dust) · uk курни́й (covered with dust) · da støvet (covered with dust) · km ប្រឡូស (covered with dust) · sh прашњав (covered with dust) · ja ほこりっぽい (covered with dust) · ca polsós (covered with dust) · is rykfallinn (covered with dust) · pt poeirento (covered with dust) · ru размельчённый (powdery and resembling dust) · gd dustach (powdery and resembling dust) · sh прашкаст (powdery and resembling dust) · ru серова́тый (grey in parts) · sah буордаах (covered with dust) · ru блёклый (grey in parts) · uk ку́рявий (covered with dust) · id berdebu (covered with dust) · su belewuk (covered with dust) · be запы́лены (covered with dust) · tr tozlu (covered with dust) · no støvet (covered with dust) · nl stoffig (covered with dust) · hu szürke (grey in parts) · fr poussiéreux (covered with dust) · bg пепеляв (grey in parts) · de staubig (covered with dust) · pt poeirento (powdery and resembling dust) · fi pölyinen (covered with dust) · cmn 塵封 /尘封 (covered with dust) · gd dustach (covered with dust) · sah быыллаах (covered with dust) · pl pylisty (powdery and resembling dust) · nl stoffig (powdery and resembling dust) · tyv довурактыг (covered with dust) · ru порошкообра́зный (powdery and resembling dust) · it impolverato (powdery and resembling dust) · sh prašnjav (covered with dust) · hu porszerű (powdery and resembling dust) · ru пы́льный (covered with dust) · ca polsegós (covered with dust) · mi puaheri (powdery and resembling dust) · be пы́льны (covered with dust) · it polveroso (powdery and resembling dust) · uk порошни́й (covered with dust) · uk запоро́шений (covered with dust) · pl zakurzony (covered with dust) · it polveroso (covered with dust) · hy փոշոտ (covered with dust)
From Middle English dusty, dusti, from Old English dūstiġ, dystiġ, dȳstiġ (“dusty”), equivalent to dust + -y. Cognate with Dutch donzig (“cottony, downy, woolly”), German dunstig (“hazy, misty”).
Meanings
A medium-brown color.
The orange shades ranged from brilliant to soft; pinks from delicate little-girl hues to strong dusties; yellows were soft buttermilks to ochre; reds ran from scarlets to bloods; 1973, Vogue - Volume 162, page 210:
I chose small floral prints for the garden area and broke them into lights, mediums, dark mediums, and darks, in other words, pastels, dusties, dark dusties, and jewel tones (refer to the Montano Color chart, page 35). 2016, Judith Baker Montano, Judith Baker Montano's Essential Stitch Guide, page 156:
An old bottle of spirits that has been kept for a long time.
A lighter, less expensive version—The White Label—was taken off the market in 2016. But dusties can still be found. 2018, Carlo DeVito, Big Whiskey, page 165:
(informal) A miller (from the image of millers being covered in flour dust).
It is designed to do scalping and grading in a way to satiffy the most fastidious of dusties. 1898 February, “The Great Western Rotary Bolter”, in The Roller Mill, volume 16, page 437:
I do not like to see too much strife between dusties on the short and long system question, as it is liable to cause hard feelings. 1895, “Operatives Should Proceed to Organize”, in American Miller, volume 23, page 448:
We believe these exhibitions have been the means of very largely increasing the attendance because the miller now knows if he goes to the convention, he will not only be able to get the experiences of his brother dusties but will see the latest improvements in milling machinery. 1910 July, “Machinery Exhibits at F.O.M.A. Convention”, in The Operative Miller, volume 15, page 505:
We give this hint as an inducement to the wives and as a warning to the dusties. On Wednesday afternoon of this memorable week all the visitors will go on the excursion to Lake Minnetonka where they will have one of the great pleasure ... 1917, The American Miller and Processor, page 394:
I've been a dusty in sixteen mills […] I'd like to hear from other dusties on this subject of a long and a short system milling and how they clean up well. Yours for the fraternity, A Bro. Miller, -Heimer. 1904, The Northwestern Miller, page 491:
(slang) A supply petty officer.
The mess was so overcrowded that hammock-slinging space became the perks of the badgemen the “jack-dusties” invariably slept in their store-rooms and offices. 1982, Ray Sturtivant, Fleet Air Arm at War, page 14:
From time to time I'd get up to the dusties' mess for this or that reason, and became known to the writers and dusties up there. 2005, Dave Diss, Dizzy, page 167:
The 'Dusties' — supply Petty Officers were frantically pumping out the kit, gas masks, kit bags, blankets, army boots, toilet bags, socks, underclothes. 1992, J. W. MacKintosh, The Hunts and the Hunted, page 10:
Take the Jack Dusties, the stores blokes, they were in our mess. 2010, Graham Hurley, Deadlight:
As soon as I become an officer all the Dusties, Tugs, Knockers, Gingers and Macs will call me 'sir' and conceal their thoughts from me; 2015, Alan Allport, Browned Off and Bloody-Minded: The British Soldier Goes to War 1939-1945:
A recording of music from another era, especially R&B; an oldie.
nice old scratchy records that had been played over and over again, I called them "dusty records," reasoning that it was the dust in the grooves from being around so long that made them crackle. Actually, to me, if a record's been played so often that it can become a dusty, that means it's good music. […] I've been following a dusties format ever since, […] 2009 February 1, Herb Kent, David Smallwood, Mayor Richard M. Daley, The Cool Gent: The Nine Lives of Radio Legend Herb Kent, Chicago Review Press, →ISBN, page 56:
In Los Angeles, listeners can tune in to KACE, the "dusties" station that plays music from the '50s, '60s and '70s; 1995 June 3, Janine McAdams, “On the Radio”, in Billboard, volume 107, number 22, page 34:
The Tom Joyner Morning Show (TJMS), for four hours Monday through Friday, played the music I identified with and wanted to hear—“the best of the hits and dusties.” 2019, Micaela Di Leonardo, Black Radio/Black Resistance, page 1:
WGCI 1390 - AM was previously known for playing R & B oldies known as "dusties". 1999, Ed Hogan, Gospel Synergy Magazine - Volume 1, Issue 3, page 10:
Leah turned on a radio station that played the dusties— rhythm and blues classics that I had enjoyed all my life. 2012, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Chicken Soup for the African American Woman's Soul:
An old person, especially one who is unwilling to change with the times.
Max and Fizz both felt resentful and indignant: how dare any stupid oldie obscure their happiness by dreary talk of pennies and pensions; how dare the dusties link love with security, matrimony with mortgages, pleasure with prams? 2013, Shirley Conran, The Revenge:
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Agriculture--Environmental and Consumer Protection Appropriations 1973, In other words, he apparently wanted to shock people into action, action against his enemies, the "dusties" as he calls them., Agriculture-environmental and Consumer Protection Appropriations For 1974, page 786:
A person of mixed race who has a swarthy complexion.
There are scarcely any Indo-Europeans of pure blood in Peru, for with the exception of pure Indians in the interior, the population consists of mestizos, Zambos, mulattoes, terceroones, terceroones, quadroons, cholos, musties, fusties, and dusties; crosses between Spaniards and negroes, Spaniards and yellows; crosses between these people and the cholos, musties, and dusties; crosses between mongrels of one kind and mongrels of the other kinds. 1914, Alfred Paul Karl Eduard Schultz, Race Or Mongrel, page 157:
Ashy niggas and dusties went everywhere, forgetting about looking dap. 1995, Ricardo Cortez Cruz, Five Days of Bleeding: A Novel, page 68:
A migrant farmer from the dustbowl.
And pretty much the same time, you started to hear about dusties down in states like California and Arizona: farmers who'd had to leave their farms because of drought, people in towns with no more water. 2017, Chris Beckett, America City:
A dustman.
One Council put that principle into practice some five years ago when it changed from a refuse collection system employing its own 'dusties' to one based upon tenders from private contractors. 1984, Local Authority Management - Volume 10, Issue 2, page 36:
His neighbours persist in this behaviour: they dump their unfinished dinners (molten broccoli? the stewed remains of infidels?) in unofficial bags the dusties shun. 2003, Geoff Cochrane, Vanilla Wine, page 61:
(rare) A duststorm.
[…] dust storms, does it? Well, nothing like what it used to have: One spring the dusties blew so thick We staked five claims above Clay Crick Fifty foot high in the fallow air. Blows lots worse on the prairie. 1952, American Heritage:
(in-plural, possibly) A clump of dust; a dust bunny.
His room was airy with a slight breeze gently blowing in from the top portion of the two-part window which was that had been left ajar for the purpose of refreshing and clearing the dusties. 2011, O. M. James, Uncomfortable Silence, page 94:
Are the 'dusties' settled in your house? Electrolux will clean them out. 2012, Alison Maloney, Bright Young Things: Life in the Roaring Twenties, page 134:
Sparse iron gray hair, stuck on his egg-shaped head like dusties from the vacuum bag, cold pewter eyes in little round metal-rimmed glasses, a sharp, hard nose, a mouth like a slot. 1988, Nora Johnson, Uncharted Places, page 273: