fusty

fusty
adjective
fus·;ty ;f;-st;
fustier; fustiest
Synonyms of fusty
1
British : impaired by age or dampness : moldy
2
: saturated with dust and stale odors : musty
3
: rigidly old-fashioned or reactionary
fustily
;f;-st;-l;
 adverb
fustiness
;f;-st;-n;s
 noun


Did you know?
A long and winish road led fusty to English’s door. While that road is a bit obscured, evidence suggests that fusty comes from the Middle English noun foist, meaning “wine cask,” which in turn traces back to the Medieval Latin word fustis, meaning “tree trunk” or “wood.” Fusty itself originally described wine that had gone stale from sitting in the cask too long; fusty literally meant that the wine had the “taste of the cask.” Eventually, fusty was used across the culinary universe for any stale food, and especially for damp or moldy food. Those damp and moldy connotations later led fusty to be applied to musty places, and later still to anything that had lost its freshness and interest—that is, to anything old-fashioned.

Synonyms
fetid
foul
frowsty [chiefly British]
frowsy
frowzy
funky
malodorous
musty
noisome
rank
reeking
reeky
ripe
smelly
stenchy
stinking
stinky
strong
Choose the Right Synonym for fusty
malodorous, stinking, fetid, noisome, putrid, rank, fusty, musty mean bad-smelling.

malodorous may range from the unpleasant to the strongly offensive.

malodorous fertilizers
stinking and fetid suggest the foul or disgusting.

prisoners were held in stinking cells
the fetid odor of skunk cabbage
noisome adds a suggestion of being harmful or unwholesome as well as offensive.

a stagnant, noisome sewer
putrid implies particularly the sickening odor of decaying organic matter.

the putrid smell of rotting fish
rank suggests a strong unpleasant smell.

rank cigar smoke
fusty and musty suggest lack of fresh air and sunlight, fusty also implying prolonged uncleanliness, musty stressing the effects of dampness, mildew, or age.

a fusty attic
the musty odor of a damp cellar
Examples of fusty in a Sentence
The trunk was full of fusty clothing.
couldn't stay too long in the fusty attic without sneezing
Recent Examples on the Web
The piece deepened the fault lines between Friedrich, the Romantic prince of sublimity and feeling, and the fusty rationalists who preceded him.
—Zachary Fine, The New Yorker, 28 June 2024
The deliciously macabre displays of taxidermy are a highlight, but the museum also manages to avoid feeling too fusty by bringing in contemporary artists to produce works in conversation with its collections, from Sterling Ruby to Jeff Koons.
—Elise Taylor, Vogue, 16 June 2024
Laugh-track shows were coming to seem not just condescending but also stiff and fusty.
—Jacob Stern, The Atlantic, 15 Apr. 2024
What this absolutism produced, of course, was not another fusty neo-Edwardian novel ; la Orwell’s earlier Keep the Aspidistra Flying, but a wild, aggrieved tour de force of dystopian erotica.
—Stephen Metcalf, The Atlantic, 5 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fusty.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.


Word History
Etymology
probably alteration of Middle English foisted, foist musty, from foist wine cask, from Anglo-French fust, fuist wood, tree trunk, cask, from Medieval Latin fustis

First Known Use
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of fusty was in the 14th century
See more words from the same century
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Dictionary Entries Near fusty
fustle

fusty

fusula

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“Fusty.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fusty. Accessed 8 Aug. 2024.

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Kids Definition
fusty

adjective
fus·;ty ;f;s-t;
fustier; fustiest
1
: full of dust and stale odors : musty
2
: very old-fashioned
fustily
-t;-l;
 adverb
fustiness
-t;-n;s
 noun