fusty
/ˈfʌsti
/adjective (fustier, fustiest)
1Smelling stale, damp, or stuffy: the fusty odour of decay...
- I also parted with a large sum of money and came away with a 7 tightly wrapped bags containing a week's supply of something that smells old, fusty and a bit mouldering.
- The ancient chairs and the stage area give out a fusty smell.
- Yes, they may be a little fusty and they may smell of beer, but at least that won't give you cancer.
Synonyms
stuffy, musty, stale, stagnant, airless, unventilated, close, suffocating, oppressive, mouldering;
damp, mildewed, mildewy;
British frowsty
1.1Old-fashioned in attitude or style: grammar in the classroom became a fusty notion...
- There's nothing musty or fusty about a passion for old, rare, or out-of-print books, Janette insists.
- A growing number of abolitionists say it intimidates newcomers to court, gives self-importance to those who officiate there and makes the justice system look fusty, out of touch and just a little ridiculous.
- Those vulnerable to infection perhaps need to understand that this is not just fusty old adults trying to stop their fun.
Synonyms
old-fashioned, out of date, outdated, behind the times, antediluvian, backward-looking, past it;
crusty, fogeyish
informal square, out of the ark, creaky, mouldy
Derivatives
fustily
- In the project to reclaim folk music, how was the listener to hear the personal behind the fustily archetypal?
- Though the meat was fabric-thin and tender, orange peel dominated the sauce like an overzealous church matron, fustily perfumed and bitter.
- Yet for all his roughshod opinions, Orwell was a gentle man who could be as fustily English as tea and crumpets.
fustiness
/ noun ...- The advent of television news, changing public tolerance for violence, and the increasing fustiness of newspaper owners were already conspiring to make this sort of rough-and-ready tabloid fare a thing of the past.
- And when you are entering your teens, making all that fuss about the adolescent equivalent of martini smacks of premature fustiness.
- In one of his occasional rants he contrasts pop's regenerative qualities with the fustiness of high culture.
Origin
Late 15th century: from Old French fuste 'smelling of the cask', from fust 'cask, tree trunk', from Latin fustis 'cudgel'.