/ˈɹʌsti/
OriginFrom Middle English rusty, from Old English rūstiġ (“rusty”), from Proto-Germanic *rustagaz (“rusty”), equivalent to rust + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian rusterch (“rusty”), West Frisian rustich, roastich (“rusty”), Dutch roestig (“rusty”), German Low German rusterig, rüsterig (“rusty”), German rostig (“rusty”), Swedish rostig (“rusty”).
- Marked or corroded by rust.
- Of the rust color, reddish or reddish-brown.
“Alive? he might be dead for aught I know, / With that red gaunt and colloped neck a-strain, / And shut eyes underneath the rusty mane;”
“Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarl”
- Lacking recent experience, out of practice, especially with respect to a skill or activity.
“Before the match, Hodgson had expressed the hope that his players would be fresh rather than rusty after an 18-day break from league commitments because of two successive postponements.”
- historicalOf clothing, especially dark clothing: worn, shabby.
“He wore a black jacket, rusty and amorphous.”
“The clerk stared at him and the rusty black bonnet a moment, and then laughed.”
- Affected with the fungal plant disease called rust.
- Discolored and rancid; reasty.
- Multicultural-London-English, slang, uncountableA gun or in particular an old or worn one.
“My angles dusty, two black hands on the rusty
And I got uck from a peng ting, mad back but the chest busty”
Formsrustier(comparative) · rustiest(superlative) · more rusty(comparative) · most rusty(superlative)