Rusty Meaning
/ˈɹʌsti/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjMarked or corroded by rust.
adjOf the rust color, reddish or reddish-brown.
Sentence Examples
You get rusty if you haven't spoken English for a long time.
Would you scrape that rusty pan?
My rusty Ford broke down, obstructing the intersection.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The old car was left outside for years and became ____ from the rain.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The gate hinges were so ____ that it took considerable effort to push them open.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English rusty, from Old English rūstiġ (“rusty”), from Proto-Germanic *rustagaz (“rusty”), equivalent to rust + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian rusterch (“rusty”), West Frisian rustich, roastich (“rusty”), Dutch roestig (“rusty”), German Low German rusterig, rüsterig (“rusty”), German rostig (“rusty”), Swedish rostig (“rusty”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Alive? he might be dead for aught I know, / With that red gaunt and colloped neck a-strain, / And shut eyes underneath the rusty mane;"
— 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XIV:
"Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs."
— 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), pages 377–378:
"Before the match, Hodgson had expressed the hope that his players would be fresh rather than rusty after an 18-day break from league commitments because of two successive postponements."
— 2010 December 29, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 Wolverhampton”, in BBC:
"He wore a black jacket, rusty and amorphous."
— 1911, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson:
"The clerk stared at him and the rusty black bonnet a moment, and then laughed."
— 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The old car was left outside for years and became ____ from the rain.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The gate hinges were so ____ that it took considerable effort to push them open.