Word.ws English Dictionary

dust

/dʌst/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northern England/dʊst/

dust noun: 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, fiber debris, dead skin cells, etc.

Noun

dust (countable and uncountable, plural dusts)

  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, fiber debris, dead skin cells, etc.
    • There is so much dust released during the process of laying ballast that the trackside operator wears a full face mask with respirator.2022 September 7, “East-West track laying heads westwards”, in RAIL, number 965, page 37, photo caption
  2. (uncountable) Any substance reduced to fine particles; powder.
  3. (uncountable) Submicron particles in outer space, largely silicates and carbon compounds, that contribute greatly to extinction at visible wavelengths.
    • Astronomers have previously considered that dust produced by the star was obscuring it, causing the steep decline in brightness.2020 June 29, Paun Rincon, “Betelgeuse: Nearby ‘supernova’ star’s dimming explained”, in BBC News
  4. (uncountable, occupational health) Disintegration of a solid, like silica.
  5. (Australia, dated, slang, uncountable) Flour.
  6. (countable, obsolete) A single fine, dry particle of earth or other material; grain of dust.
    • to touch a dust of England’s ground1595 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...
  7. (countable) The act of cleaning by dusting.
    • […]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?2010, Joan Busfield, Michael Paddon, Thinking About Children: Sociology and Fertility in Post-War England, page 150
  8. (countable) The act of sprinkling dust, or a sprinkle of dust itself.
  9. (poetic) Earth, ground, soil, sediment.
    • 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; […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 54
  10. The earth as the resting place of the dead.
    • For now shall I sleep in the dust.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 7:21
  11. The earthly remains of bodies once alive; the remains of the human body.
    • 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.1833 (date written), Alfred Tennyson, “St. Simeon Stylites”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 62
  12. (figuratively) The substance of the human body or mortal frame.
Show 9 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (figuratively) Something worthless.
    • And by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust.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]...
  2. (figuratively) A low or mean condition.
    • [God] raiseth up the poor out of the dust.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 2:8
  3. (UK, colloquial) Rubbish, garbage, refuse.
  4. (dated, slang) cash; money (in reference to gold dust).
    • ‘And what do you ask for it?’ ‘Fifteen thousand dollars.’ ‘I’ll take it.’ ‘Then down with the dust.’1852, George Colvocoresses, Four Years in a Government Exploring Expedition
  5. (countable) A cloud of dust.
  6. (countable, figuratively) A tumult, disturbance, commotion, uproar.
    • to raise, or kick up, a dust
  7. (colloquial, countable) A fight or row.
  8. (countable) A totally disconnected set of points with a fractal structure.
  9. Tiny amounts of cryptocurrency left over after a transaction due to rounding error.

Verb

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.
    • 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...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
  2. (intransitive) To remove dust; to clean by removing dust.
    • Dusting always makes me cough.
  3. (archaic, transitive) To make dusty, to soil with dust.
  4. (intransitive, 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. (US, intransitive, slang) To leave quickly; to rush off.
    • He added in a casual tone: ‘The girl can dust. I’d like to talk to you a little, soldier.’1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 75
  8. (obsolete, transitive) To drink up quickly; to toss off.
  9. (obsolete, transitive) To reduce to a fine powder; to pulverize, to levigate.
    • good Powder differs from bad […]in having more Peter and less Coal; and lastly, in the well dusting of it1667, Thomas Sprat, History of the Royal Society of London
  10. (colloquial, dialectal, transitive) To strike, beat, thrash.
  11. (US, slang, transitive) To defeat badly, to thrash.
  12. (US, slang, transitive) To kill.
    • 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.1984, The Terminator, spoken by Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), Los Angeles, Calif.: Orion Pictures; distributed by MGM Home Entertainment, published 1984
  13. (transitive) To deliberately pitch a ball close to (a batter); to brush back.
  14. To attempt to identify the owner of (a cryptocurrency wallet) by sending tiny amounts of cryptocurrency.

Proper noun capitalized: Dust

Dust (plural Dusts)

  1. A surname.

dust meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

dust in Hindi

fine, dry particles
धूल dhūl, धूलि dhūli, ख़ाक xāk, खाक khāk, धुलि dhuli, गर्द gard

dust in Tamil

தூசு, தூசி, புழுதி, தூசு தட்டு

dust in Marathi

fine, dry particles
धूळ dhūḷ

dust in Urdu

fine, dry particles
دُھول dhūl, خاک xāk, گَرْد gard, غُبار ġubār
More languagesFewer languages
dust in Bengali
ধূলি dhuli
dust in Telugu
దుమ్ము dummu, ధూళి dhūḷi
dust in Malayalam
ധൂളി dhūḷi, പൊടി poṭi
dust in Kannada
ಧೂಳು dhūḷu
dust in Punjabi
ਧੂੜ dhūṛ, دھوڑ dhūṛ, ਧੁੰਦ dhund, دھند dhund
dust in Gujarati
ધૂળ dhūḷ, રજ raj
dust in Odia
ଧୂଲା dhulā
dust in Sanskrit
धूलि dhūli, रजस् rájas
dust in Sinhala
දූවිල්ල dūwilla
dust in Assamese
ধূলি dhuli
dust in Nepali
धुलो dhulo
dust in Pashto
دوڼ dúṇ, ږږ ẓǝẓ, کسيا kasyã
dust in Tagalog
alikabok, gabok
dust in Arabic
غُبَار ḡubār, تراب turāb, غُبار ḡubār, تُراب turāb
dust in Malay
habuk, debu
dust in Indonesian
debu, duli
dust in Persian
خاک xâk, گَرْد gard, غُبار ġobâr
dust in Thai
ฝุ่น fùn, ผง pǒng, ธุลี tú-lii
dust in Vietnamese
bụi, phủi
dust in Myanmar
ဖုန် hpun

Examples of dust in a sentence

  • My old encyclopedia has been gathering dust on the shelf for the past decade.
  • This bright light shows up the dust in the corners of the room.
  • A dust devil may look harmless, but a large one can overturn a car.

All 40 example sentences with dust

Forms of dust

Noun
pluraldusts
Verb
third-person singular presentdusts
present participledusting
past participledusted
pastdusted
Proper noun
pluralDusts

Past tense of dust: dusted

Plural of dust: dusts

Origin of 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.

* As an English surname, from the noun dust. * As a north German surname, from the noun Dust with the same meaning as above, from Middle Low German and Old Saxon dust, from Proto-Germanic *dustą.

Words formed from dust

Phrases with dust

154 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with dust

25 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about dust

What does dust mean?
Dust means 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, fiber debris, dead skin cells, etc.
What is dust in Hindi?
Dust in Hindi is धूल (dhūl), धूलि (dhūli), ख़ाक (xāk). See Dust meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is dust?
Dust can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce dust?
Dust is pronounced /dʌst/.
What is the plural of dust?
The plural of dust is dusts.

Words near dust in the dictionary

  1. dussertite
  2. dussumierid
  3. dussumierids
  4. dussumieriid
  5. dussumieriids
  6. dust
  7. dust bag
  8. dust bags
  9. dust bath
  10. dust bathing
  11. dust baths

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dust (page history and authors); Dust (page history and authors); dust (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ധൂളി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಧೂಳು (Kannada) (page history and authors); دھند (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ધૂળ (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-dust.ogg.

Cite this entry: “dust.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dust. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.