dusty

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”).

adj

1. Covered with dust.
   a dusty carpet
2. Powdery and resembling dust.
3. Grey or greyish.
   a dusty peach color
4. (figurative) Old; outdated; stuffily traditional.
   The very smart practitioners of my acquaintance do not rest their right hand on old dusty knowledge, but bend and move along a ground of being in which they are perpetually on the lookout for what is trusty and true, new and old. 2018, Mark A. Kunkel, Allegories for Psychotherapy, Teaching, and Supervision, page 208
5. (African-American Vernacular, slang) Ugly, disgusting (a general term of abuse)
6. (Britain, slang, chiefly in negative constructions) Ugly, unwell, inadequate, bad.
   ...the toilet-glass on the table...had probably reflected few such faces as that of the lady calling herself Mrs. Lloyd, who looked attentively into it when she found herself alone and decided that she was not so very dusty, considering 1868, Edmund Yates, The Rock Ahead: A Novel, page 21
   One morning, I said to a patient: "How are you today, Mrs. White?" And she replied "Not so dusty - quite well brushed." 1967, “Jewish Affairs”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 22, page 30
   "Never mind," she ventured, "but thanks for the compliment. You're not so dusty yourself!" 2011, Media Lawson-Butler, Thistle in the Wind, page 205