Musty

Quick meaning: Musty is an adjective meaning Affected by dampness or mould; damp, mildewed, mouldy.

Meaning

Affected by dampness or mould; damp, mildewed, mouldy.

More Meanings

1. Having an odour or taste of mould; also (generally), having a stale or unfresh odour or taste.
2. Characteristic of or relating to mould or mouldiness.
3. Of attitudes, ideas, writing, or other abstract things: no longer fresh or interesting; outdated, stale.
4. Of a person: boring and unadventurous; also, old-fashioned, stuck in the past.
5. Bad-tempered, grumpy, irritable.
6. (intransitive, obsolete) To turn musty (adjective sense 1 or 2); to must.
7. (obsolete) A type of snuff with a musty flavour (adjective sense 2).

Example Sentences

[H]ave your vvorms vvell ſcovvred and not kept in ſovvre or muſtie moſs; […]

[W]hẽ his wordes be wel ſifted, men ſhall find little fine flowre in thẽ, but all very muſtie branne, not worthy ſo muche as to fede either horſe or hogges.

Undaunted vvas my heart, nor could appal / The muſtieſt volume of the ſtall; / VVhere'er I turn'd, the giant ſpiders fled, / And trembling moths retreated as I read; […]

[C]ome prithee let's be gone out of this ungrateful Air of his old Houſe; a pox on't, I can ſmell the muſty Bed-mats, and Kitchen-dreſſers, above half a Mile before I come to't.

Word Forms

• mustier
• mustiest
• musties
• mustying
• mustied
• mustiedst
• mustieth
• musthy

Synonyms for musty

Depending on context, synonyms include fusty, outmoded, fogeyish, stale, malodorous, moldy.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include fusty, frowsty, mouldy, moldy, malodorous, stale.

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