crusty, a.
(ˈkrʌstɪ)
[f. crust n. + -y.]
1. Of the nature of a crust; hard like a crust; characterized by having a crust. spec. a. Scabby; † b. Crustaceous (obs.); c. Crusted (of wine).
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 186 If þe mater be fleumatik..& if þe skyn be crusty. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 369 An handfull of corne..or else of crustie breade sodden in a caldron. 1600 Hakluyt Voy. III. 274 (R.) A kinde of crusty shel-fish..hauing a crusty taile. 1666 J. Smith Old Age 173 (T.) The dry, solid, tensile, hard, and crusty parts of the body. 1713 Derham Phys. Theol. (J.), The egg..its parts within, and its crusty coat without. 1830 Miss Mitford Village Ser. iv. (1863) 136 His loaves, which are crusty, and his temper, which is not. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxviii. (1856) 229 Snow, recent and sufficiently crusty to bear you five paces and let you through the sixth. 1866 Possibilities of Creation 77 Good old crusty port. |
2. fig. Of persons (or their dispositions, etc.): Short of temper; harshly curt in manner or speech: the opposite of suave or affable.
| c 1570 Preston Cambyses in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 184 Master Ruff, are ye so crusty? 1598 Lyly Moth. Bomb. ii. iv, You need not bee crustie, you are not so hard backt. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. i. 5 Enter Thersites. Achil. Thou crusty batch of Nature, what's the newes? 1764 Foote Mayor of G. i. Wks. 1799 1. 174 Come, come, man; don't be so crusty. 1857 Mrs. Gaskell C. Brontë (1860) 12 A stranger can hardly ask a question without receiving some crusty reply. |
† b. fig. Hardened, stubborn. Obs.
| 1651–3 Jer. Taylor Serm. for Year i. xii. 153 Hardned not by cold, but made crusty and stubborn, by the warmth of the divine fire. |
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Senses in Dict. become A. adj. 1 and 2. Add: B. n. (Also crustie.) One of a group of homeless or vagrant young people, generally living by begging in cities, and characterized by rough clothes, matted, often dreadlocked hair, and an unkempt appearance; also, the name given to this subculture as a whole.
| 1990 Guardian 30 Apr. 36/6 This covers a whole range of styles, from the leather jackets and DMs of more or less unreconstructed punks to the rags of the ‘crusties’, who ‘never wash at all and look like it’. 1991 Twenty Twenty Spring 52 A familiar sight on every city's streets—look for the matted hair, donkey jacket and the dog on a string lead—Crusties are the cult that got away. 1991 Independent 26 Oct. (Mag.) 67/1 Crusty was born out of punk, nurtured by hippy foster-parents on the free festival scene, and has now come of age. Ibid. 68/1 In the mid-Eighties, Bristol punks started behaving in more and more extreme ways. Spiky hair and ripped jeans were no longer shocking anybody, so they started vomiting on themselves, rolling in filth, and never, ever washing—Crusty originated as a descriptive term. 1992 i-D July 29/2 They attract a huge following of young ‘Deadheads’ decked out in a mixture of '69 and crusty styles. 1993 Lowe & Shaw Travellers iv. 151, I've been moved on quite a lot begging in London, but begging there's horrible anyway... I've been beaten up just for looking like a crustie. |