Definition
nounThe deteriorated state of iron or steel as a result of moisture and oxidation; it consists mostly of iron(III) oxide (ferric oxide) and iron(II) oxide (ferrous oxide).
nounA similar substance based on another metal.
Sentence Examples
Too much rest is rust.
A bicycle will rust if you leave it in the rain.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English rust, rost, roust, from Old English rust, rūst (“rust”), from Proto-West Germanic *rust, from Proto-Germanic *rustaz (“rust”), from Proto-Indo-European *rudʰso- (“red”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewdʰ- (“red”).
Cognate with Scots roust (“rust”), Saterland Frisian rust (“rust”), West Frisian roast (“rust”), Dutch roest (“rust”), German Rost (“rust”), Danish rust (“rust”), Swedish rost (“rust”), Norwegian rust, ryst (“rust”), Finnish ruoste, Estonian rooste. Related to red.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The relegation of locomotives to storage seemed to be on a very unsystematic basis on all three principal Irish railways: while one member of a class was rusting in a yard, another might be hard at work in revenue-earning service—[…]."
— 1959 June 26, R. A. Young, “A Railway Holiday in Ireland—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 416:
"I am sorry to say that, contrary to the majority, I have to report that the forage rusted rather badly."
— 1902 January 3, “Mapstone Oats: Further Experiences”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 22, page 688:
"Must I rust in Egypt? never more / Appear in arms, and be the chief of Greece?"
— 1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy:
"In Rust, the compiler plays a gatekeeper role by refusing to compile code with these elusive bugs, including concurrency bugs."
— 2019, Steve Klabnik, Carol Nichols, The Rust Programming Language, No Starch Press, →ISBN, page xxvi: