Word.ws English Dictionary

dusting up

dusting up is the present participle and gerund of dust up.

Meaning of dust up

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To cover with dust.
  2. (slang, transitive) To attack (a person) physically; to beat up.
    • I promptly put my machine behind him and was about to dust him up a bit when another Fokker came to my help and got in first. He dived on the Caudron, who bolted at once. The Nieuport saw him and came to help his comrade in distress.2009, Johannes Werner, Knight of Germany: Oswald Boelcke German Ace, page 194

Questions about dusting up

What is dusting up the present participle and gerund of?
Dusting up is the present participle and gerund of dust up.

Words near dusting up in the dictionary

  1. dusting off
  2. dusting off a batter
  3. dusting off the cobwebs
  4. dusting out
  5. dusting someone's jacket
  6. dusting up
  7. dustings
  8. dustish
  9. dustjacket
  10. dustjackets
  11. dustless

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dusting up (page history and authors); dust up (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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