dust

From Middle English dust, doust, from Old English dūst (“dust, dried earth reduced to powder; other dry material reduced to powder”), from the fusion of Proto-Germanic *dustą (“dust”) and *dunstą (“mist, dust, evaporation”), both from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke, raise dust”).

Cognate with Scots dust, dist (“dust”), Dutch duist (“pollen, dust”) and dons (“down, fuzz”), German Dust (“dust”) and Dunst (“haze”), Swedish dust (“dust”), Icelandic dust (“dust”), Latin fūmus (“smoke, steam”). Also related to Swedish dun (“down, fluff”), Icelandic dúnn (“down, fluff”). See down.

• IPA^(key): /dʌst/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌst

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: dost

dust (countable and uncountable, plural dusts)

1. Fine particles.
   1. (uncountable) Fine, dry particles of matter found in the air and covering the surface of objects, typically consisting of soil lifted up by the wind, pollen, hair, etc.
      • 2022 September 7, “East-West track laying heads westwards”, in RAIL, number 965, page 37, photo caption:

        There is so much dust released during the process of laying ballast that the trackside operator wears a full face mask with respirator.

   2. (uncountable) Any substance reduced to fine particles; powder.
   3. (uncountable, astronomy) Submicron particles in outer space, largely silicates and carbon compounds, that contribute greatly to extinction at visible wavelengths.
      • 2020 June 29, Paun Rincon, “Betelgeuse: Nearby ‘supernova’ star’s dimming explained”, in BBC News:

        Astronomers have previously considered that dust produced by the star was obscuring it, causing the steep decline in brightness.

   4. (uncountable, Australia, slang, dated) Flour.
   5. (countable, obsolete) A single fine, dry particle of earth or other material; grain of dust.
      • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

        to touch a dust of England’s ground

2. (countable) The act of cleaning by dusting.
   • 2010, Joan Busfield, Michael Paddon, Thinking About Children: Sociology and Fertility in Post-War England, page 150:

     […] once they start school, I mean you can do a room out one day, the next day it only needs a dust, doesn’t it?

3. (countable) The act of sprinkling dust, or a sprinkle of dust itself.
4. (poetic) Earth, ground, soil, sediment.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXXV, page 54:

     But I should turn mine ears and hear
     The moanings of the homeless sea,
     ⁠The sound of streams that swift or slow
     ⁠Draw down Æonian hills, and sow
     The dust of continents to be; […]

5. The earth as the resting place of the dead.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 7:21:

     For now shall I sleep in the dust.

6. The earthy remains of bodies once alive; the remains of the human body.
   • 1833 (date written), Alfred Tennyson, “St. Simeon Stylites”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 62:

     For I will leave my relics in your land, / And you may carve a shrine about my dust, / And burn a fragrant lamp before my bones, / When I am gather’d to the glorious saints.

7. (figurative) The substance of the human body or mortal frame.
8. (figurative) Something worthless.
   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     And by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust.

9. (figurative) A low or mean condition.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 2:8:

     [God] raiseth up the poor out of the dust.

10. (British, colloquial) Rubbish, garbage, refuse.
11. (slang, dated) cash; money (in reference to gold dust).
    • 1852, George Colvocoresses, Four Years in a Government Exploring Expedition:

      ‘And what do you ask for it?’ ‘Fifteen thousand dollars.’ ‘I’ll take it.’ ‘Then down with the dust.’

12. (countable) A cloud of dust.
13. (countable, figurative) A tumult, disturbance, commotion, uproar.

    to raise, or kick up, a dust

14. (countable, colloquial) A fight or row.
15. (countable, mathematics) A totally disconnected set of points with a fractal structure.
16. (cryptocurrencies) Tiny amounts of cryptocurrency left over after a transaction due to rounding error.

• → Russian: дуст (dust)

dust (third-person singular simple present dusts, present participle dusting, simple past and past participle dusted)

1. (transitive) To remove dust from.

   The cleaning lady needs a stool to dust the cupboard.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.

2. (intransitive) To remove dust; to clean by removing dust.

   Dusting always makes me cough.

3. (transitive, archaic) To make dusty, to soil with dust.
4. (intransitive or reflexive) Of a bird, to cover itself in sand or dry, dusty earth.
5. (transitive) To spray or cover (something) with fine powder or liquid, to sprinkle.

   The mother dusted her baby’s bum with talcum powder.

6. (transitive) To sprinkle (a substance) in the form of dust.
7. (intransitive, chiefly US slang) To leave quickly; to rush off.
   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 75:

     He added in a casual tone: ‘The girl can dust. I’d like to talk to you a little, soldier.’

8. (transitive, obsolete) To drink up quickly; to toss off.
9. (transitive, obsolete) To reduce to a fine powder; to pulverize, to levigate.
   • 1667, Thomas Sprat, History of the Royal Society of London:

     good Powder differs from bad […] in having more Peter and less Coal; and lastly, in the well dusting of it

10. (transitive, now colloquial or dialectal) To strike, beat, thrash.
11. (transitive, chiefly US slang) To defeat badly, to thrash.
12. (transitive, chiefly US slang) To kill.
    • 1984, The Terminator, spoken by Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), Los Angeles, Calif.: Orion Pictures; distributed by MGM Home Entertainment, published 1984:

      Kyle Reese: You have to be careful because the [Hunter-Killer robots] use infrared. They’re not too bright. John taught us ways to dust them.

13. (transitive, baseball) To deliberately pitch a ball close to (a batter); to brush back.
14. (cryptocurrencies) To attempt to identify the owner of (a cryptocurrency wallet) by sending tiny amounts of cryptocurrency.

• dust bunny
• dust down
• duster
• dust off
• dust up
• dust someone's jacket
• undust

• vacuum cleaner

• UDTs, duts, stud

From Old Norse dust.

dust n (genitive singular dusts, uncountable)

1. dust

From Old Norse dust.

• IPA^(key): /tʏst/
• Rhymes: -ʏst

dust n (genitive singular dusts, no plural)

1. dust

   Synonyms: ryk, duft

• doust, duste, doste, dyste

Forms with a long vowel are from Old English dūst, from Proto-Germanic *dunstą. Forms with a short vowel are from Old English *dust, from Proto-Germanic *dustą.

• IPA^(key): /dust/, /duːst/

dust (uncountable)

1. dust, powder
2. dirt, grit
3. (figurative) iota, modicum

• dusten (rare)
• dusty

• English: dust
• Scots: dust, dist

• “dū̆st, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-04.

Back-formation of dustet, from Old Norse dust (dust particle)

dust m (definite singular dusten, indefinite plural duster, definite plural dustene)

1. (derogatory) dork, moron, fool

• dustemikkel
• tomsing
• tosk
• tufs
• støv

From Old Norse dust.

dust f or m (definite singular dusta or dusten, indefinite plural duster, definite plural dustene)

1. dust (fine, dry particles)

• “dust” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse dust (dust particle), compare with dustete.

dust m (definite singular dusten, indefinite plural dustar, definite plural dustane)

1. (derogatory) dork, moron, fool

• dustemikkel
• tomsing
• tosk
• tufs
• støv

From Old Norse dust.

dust f (definite singular dusta, indefinite plural duster, definite plural dustene)

1. dust (fine, dry particles)

• “dust” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Proto-Germanic *dunstą (“dust, vapour”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰew- (“vapour, smoke”). Akin to Hindi धुआं (dhuā̃, “smoke”), Middle Dutch dost, donst, duust (Dutch dons, duist), Old High German tunst, dunst (German Dunst), Low German dust, Icelandic dust, Norwegian dust, Danish dyst.

• IPA^(key): /duːst/

dūst n

1. dust; powder; mill dust

• Middle English: dust, doust
  • English: dust
  • Scots: dust, dist

From Proto-Germanic *dustą.

dust n

1. dust particle

• Icelandic: dust
• Faroese: dust
• Norwegian: dust
• Swedish: dust
• Danish: dyst

• “dust”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

From English dust.

• IPA^(key): /t̪us̪t̪/

dust m (genitive singular dust, no plural)

1. dust

• Also used figuratively for corpse.

• duslach
• stùr

• dustach
• dustaig
• dustair

Inherited from Old Swedish dust, duster, diost, from Middle Low German dust, diost, from Old French joste, juste, from Latin juxta. Cognate of Danish dyst, French joute.

dust c

1. a joust
2. (figuratively) a (minor) verbal or physical confrontation, a bout, a tussle, a run-in

• dust in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• dust in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• dust in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• dust in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)

dust

1. side; one half (left or right, top or bottom, front or back, etc.) of something or someone.
2. to level

• dustê
• dusta