fusty, a.
(ˈfʌstɪ)
Also 6 fewsty; and see foisty.
[f. fust n.1 2.]
1. That has lost its freshness, stale-smelling, musty. a. Of a wine-cask or vessel. Also of the wine: Tasting of the cask. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iii. xii. (1495) 57 Wyne and other licour takyth infeccion of a vessell that is fusty. 1520 Whitinton Vulg. (1527) 15 The wyne bottell is somwhat fusty. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 152 To renue their wines, and make them seem fresh and new, after they haue by long lying gotten a fusty rotten tast. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 617 To restore againe into his former and sound estate, the Wine that is growne fat, fustie, and hath taken winde. 1877 Holderness Gloss., Fusty, musty; fetid; stale: generally applied to malt liquors, or vessels containing them. |
| fig. 1645 Milton Colast. (1851) 375 His farewell, which is to be a concluding taste of his jabberment in law, the flashiest and the fustiest that ever corrupted in such an unswill'd hogshead. |
b. Of bread, corn, meat, etc.: Smelling of mould or damp.
| 1491 Caxton Vitas Patr. (1495) 6 He..founde brede..the whyche was not fayre, but fusty and spotted. 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. i. (Arb.) 76 If a feaste..had fewsty and noughty bread, all the other daynties shulde be vnsauery. 1596 Bp. W. Barlow Three Serm. ii. 59 Who had rather the corne should waxe fustie in their garners then to sell it out. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. i. 111 If he knocke out either of your braines, he were as good cracke a fustie nut with no kernell. 1655 Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 339 You must not presently mould up your Meal after grinding..nor keep it too long, lest it prove fusty. 1884 J. Bull's Neighb. in True Light xii. 88 He will take a piece of diseased horse or fusty beef, and make a ragoût that will cause you to smack your lips. |
| fig. 1650 Trapp Comm. Numbers ix. 11 That fusty, swelling, sowring, spreading corruption of nature and practice. |
2. Of persons, places, etc.: Having an unpleasant, ‘close’, or ‘stuffy’ smell such as arises from dirt, dust, or damp.
| a 1529 Skelton Agst. Garnesche 77 Fusty bawdyas. 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster iii. iv, Hang him, fustie Satire, he smells all goat. 1602 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. v. iv. 2233 Farewell musty, dusty, rusty, fusty London. c 1648–50 R. Brathwait Barnabees Jrnl. X v a, Ins are nasty, dusty, fustie. 1798 A. Seward Lett. (1811) V. 147 Old fusty stuff-beds. 1840 Lady Granville Lett. Jan. (1894) II. 299 Intense heat in the mild, fusty weather. 1842 Dickens in Forster Life iii. 101 Dirty clothes-bags musty, moist and fusty. 1848 Kingsley Saint's Trag. iv. iv, Stifling her with fusty sighs. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. iv, A fusty old gown which had been about college probably for ten generations. |
3. fig. That has lost its freshness and interest; bearing marks of age or neglect; of old-fashioned appearance or behaviour, ‘fogeyish’.
| 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 161 At this fusty stuffe, The large Achilles..laughes out a lowd applause. 1609 W. M. Man in Moone (1857) 84 True is the proverbe, though fustie to fine wits. 1674 J. D. Mall i. i. in Dryden's Wks. 1884 VIII. 513 All pretty Ladies will shun thee for a fusty Husband. 1728 Carey Song in Vanbr. & Cib. Prov. Husb. iv, If I stay 'till I grow gray, They'll call me old Maid, and fusty old jade. 1743–4 Mrs. Delany Let. to Mrs. Dewes in Life & Corr. 249 Old fusty physicians, you know, are full of ceremony. 1782 F. Burney Cecilia x. x, What could ever induce you to give up your charming estate for the sake of coming into his fusty old family! 1833 Tennyson Poems 153, I forgave you all the blame, Musty Christopher; I could not forgive the praise, Fusty Christopher. 1842 Mrs. Gore Fascin. 164 Létorière is too good a rider..to lose his time with fusty Latin and Greek. 1883 Gd. Words 183 The doctors say we get musty and fusty if we stay in one place. |
† b. ? Ill-humoured, peevish, dull.
Obs. rare—1.
| 1668 Pepys Diary 18 June, My wife still in a melancholy, fusty humour, and crying, and do not tell me plainly what it is. |
† c. Used as
n.: A ‘seedy’ person.
Obs.| a 1732 Gay Distress'd Wife ii. v, If Mr. Forward calls, I think—Yes—You may let him in..But, be sure you let in no Fusties. |
4. Comb., as
fusty framed,
fusty-looking,
fusty-rusty adjs.| 1593 Tell-Troth's N.Y. Gift 4 After the finishinge of whose fustie framed speech. 1782 Cowper Let. to Unwin 5 Jan. in Life 1804 III. 110 But what shall we say of his [Johnson's] fusty-rusty remarks upon Henry and Emma? 1877 M. M. Grant Sun-Maid i, A fusty-looking old personage with a large umbrella. |
Hence
ˈfustily adv.,
ˈfustiness; also (jocular nonce-wds.)
ˈfusticate v. trans., to make fusty;
intr., to stay in a close stuffy atmosphere.
ˈfustified a. = fusty a. 3.
| 1526 Househ. Ord. (1790) 218 Item, that the Brewers doe brew good and seasonable stuff without Weevell or Fustines. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 333 If any fustiness be found in his writings, it comes not from the grape, but from the cask. a 1722 Lisle Husb. (1752) 169 'Tis not only the loss of those grains that actually grow, but a foulness and fustiness also. 1835 Beckford Recoll. 150 This most consequential of equerries..invited us..to screen ourselves from the meridian heats..Preceded by the right pompous and fustified equerry, we diverged from the mended track. 1839 Blackw. Mag. XLVI. 734 When there was a sort of golden age..and shepherds had nothing to do but pipe..The country pipes now-a-days, are terribly fusticated with tobacco. 1864 Realm 18 May 8 We have so long associated him [an actor] with Melter Moss, that rustiness and fustiness seemed a normal part of his being. 1874 Blackie Self-Cult. 30 A student, and smells fustily of books, as an inveterate smoker does of tobacco. 1883 J. Payn Thicker than Water 151 The one is fustiness, the other is skimpiness. In the former case..the air is rather difficult to breathe. Flue is everywhere. 1923 U. L. Silberrad Lett. J. Armiter iv. 102 ‘Are you going to stop—’ (I feel sure he meant ‘fusticating’, though he was too polite to say it) ‘in here all afternoon?’ he asked. |