Word.ws English Dictionary

kick up dust

kick up dust verb: to cause the air to become filled with dust from a surface.

Verb

kick up dust (third-person singular simple present kicks up dust, present participle kicking up dust, simple past and past participle kicked up dust)

  1. To cause the air to become filled with dust from a surface.
    • Schneider maintains that water-assisted sweeping equipment helps keep dust down, except in new construction areas where it seems to kick up dust, but he'll compensate by turning up the water.2003, Stormwater: The Journal for Surface Water Quality Professionals
    • The new lane was flat and smooth, allowing cars and trucks to go faster and kick up dust.2007, Jim Sterba, Frankie's Place: A Love Story, →ISBN
  2. To make a fuss.
    • Shanghai Kelly has been kicking up dust about the war on the crimps and boardinghouse keepers.1930, James Dalessandro, 1906 - a Novel
    • He kicked up dust about how we really didn't have our facts straight regarding his allegedly loaded gloves.2011, Gary Andrew Poole, PacMan, →ISBN

Examples of kick up dust in a sentence

  • Anyway, they would step up to the firing line, carefully take aim, and kick up dust all around the target but seldom come close to the bull's eye.2012, Jerry McKee Bullock, Life’s Like That: An Old Texan Looks at Life, →ISBN, page 98:
  • She was certain she was about to kick up dust about her mother just as Setsuka had done about Mitsu's death eighteen years ago.2011, Falling Rain, Ouroboros: Road of Legend, →ISBN, page 318:

Forms of kick up dust

third-person singular presentkicks up dust
present participlekicking up dust
past participlekicked up dust
pastkicked up dust
alternative formkick up a dust

Questions about kick up dust

What does kick up dust mean?
Kick up dust means to cause the air to become filled with dust from a surface.
How do you use kick up dust in a sentence?
Anyway, they would step up to the firing line, carefully take aim, and kick up dust all around the target but seldom come close to the bull's eye.
What part of speech is kick up dust?
Kick up dust is a verb.
What is the past tense of kick up dust?
The past tense of kick up dust is kicked up dust.

Words near kick up dust in the dictionary

  1. kick to the kerb
  2. kick to touch
  3. kick up
  4. kick up a fuss
  5. kick up a stew
  6. kick up dust
  7. kick up one's heels
  8. kick up the arse
  9. kick up the ass
  10. kick up the backside
  11. kick up the bottom

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kick up dust (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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