Word: dusty Part of Speech: noun Etymology: 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”). Pronunciation: /ˈdʌsti/ 1. A medium-brown color. Example: 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; Example: 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). 2. An old bottle of spirits that has been kept for a long time. Example: A lighter, less expensive version—The White Label—was taken off the market in 2016. But dusties can still be found. 3. A miller (from the image of millers being covered in flour dust). Labels: informal Example: 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. Example: It is designed to do scalping and grading in a way to satiffy the most fastidious of dusties. 4. A supply petty officer. Labels: slang Example: 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. Example: The 'Dusties' — supply Petty Officers were frantically pumping out the kit, gas masks, kit bags, blankets, army boots, toilet bags, socks, underclothes. 5. A recording of music from another era, especially R&B; an oldie. Example: In Los Angeles, listeners can tune in to KACE, the "dusties" station that plays music from the '50s, '60s and '70s; Example: WGCI 1390 - AM was previously known for playing R & B oldies known as "dusties". 6. An old person, especially one who is unwilling to change with the times. Example: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Agriculture--Environmental and Consumer Protection Appropriations Example: 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? 7. A person of mixed race who has a swarthy complexion. Example: 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. Example: Ashy niggas and dusties went everywhere, forgetting about looking dap. 8. A migrant farmer from the dustbowl. Example: 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. 9. A dustman. Example: 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. Example: His neighbours persist in this behaviour: they dump their unfinished dinners (molten broccoli? the stewed remains of infidels?) in unofficial bags the dusties shun. 10. A duststorm. Labels: rare Example: […] 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. 11. A clump of dust; a dust bunny. Labels: in-plural, possibly Example: 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. Example: 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.