From Middle English dust, doust, from Old English dūst, from the fusion of Proto-Germanic *dustą and *dunstą ("mist, dust, evaporation"), both from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂-.

Cognate with Scots dust, dist ("dust"), Dutch duist and dons ("down, fuzz"), German Dust and Dunst ("haze"), Swedish dust, Icelandic dust, Latin fūmus. Also related to Swedish dun, Icelandic dúnn. See down.

• IPA: /dʌst/

dust

1. Fine particles.
   1. (uncountable) Fine, dry particles of matter found in the air and covering the surface of objects, typically consisting of soil lifted up by the wind, pollen, hair, etc.
   2. (uncountable) Any substance reduced to fine particles; powder.
   3. (uncountable, astronomy) Submicron particles in outer space, largely silicates and carbon compounds, that contribute greatly to extinction at visible wavelengths.
   4. (uncountable, Australia, slang, dated) Flour.
   5. (countable, obsolete) A single fine, dry particle of earth or other material; grain of dust.
      • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene iii]:

        to touch a dust of England’s ground

2. (countable) The act of cleaning by dusting.
   • 2010, Joan Busfield, Michael Paddon, Thinking About Children: Sociology and Fertility in Post-War England, page 150:

     […] once they start school, I mean you can do a room out one day, the next day it only needs a dust, doesn’t it?

3. (countable) The act of sprinkling dust, or a sprinkle of dust itself.
4. (poetic) Earth, ground, soil, sediment.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC ↗, Canto XXXV, page 54 ↗:

     But I should turn mine ears and hear
     The moanings of the homeless sea,
     ⁠The sound of streams that swift or slow
     ⁠Draw down Æonian hills, and sow
     The dust of continents to be; […]

5. The earth as the resting place of the dead.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Job 7:21 ↗:

     For now shall I sleep in the dust.

6. The earthy remains of bodies once alive; the remains of the human body.
   • 1833 (date written), Alfred Tennyson, “St. Simeon Stylites”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC ↗, page 62 ↗:

     For I will leave my relics in your land, / And you may carve a shrine about my dust, / And burn a fragrant lamp before my bones, / When I am gather’d to the glorious saints.

7. (figurative) The substance of the human body or mortal frame.
8. (figurative) Something worthless.
   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene i]:

     And by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust.

9. (figurative) A low or mean condition.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, 1 Samuel 2:8 ↗:

     [God] raiseth up the poor out of the dust.

10. (Britain, colloquial) Rubbish, garbage, refuse.
11. (slang, dated) cash; money (in reference to gold dust).
12. (countable) A cloud of dust.
13. (countable, figurative) A tumult, disturbance, commotion, uproar.

    to raise, or kick up, a dust

14. (countable, colloquial) A fight or row.
15. (countable, mathematics) A totally disconnected set of points with a fractal structure.
16. (cryptocurrency) Tiny amounts of cryptocurrency left over after a transaction due to rounding error.

• French: poussière
• German: Staub
• Italian: polvere
• Portuguese: pó, poeira
• Russian: пыль
• Spanish: polvo

dust (dusts, present participle dusting; simple past and past participle dusted)

1. (transitive) To remove dust from.

   The cleaning lady needs a stool to dust the cupboard.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:

     There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.

2. (intransitive) To remove dust; to clean by removing dust.

   Dusting always makes me cough.

3. (transitive, archaic) To make dusty, to soil with dust.
4. (intransitive or reflexive) Of a bird, to cover itself in sand or dry, dusty earth.
5. (transitive) To spray or cover (something) with fine powder or liquid, to sprinkle.

   The mother dusted her baby’s bum with talcum powder.

6. (transitive) To sprinkle (a substance) in the form of dust.
7. (intransitive, chiefly, US slang) To leave quickly; to rush off.
   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 75:

     He added in a casual tone: ‘The girl can dust. I’d like to talk to you a little, soldier.’

8. (transitive, obsolete) To drink up quickly; to toss off.
9. (transitive, obsolete) To reduce to a fine powder; to pulverize, to levigate.
10. (transitive, now, colloquial or dialectal) To strike, beat, thrash.
11. (transitive, chiefly, US slang) To defeat badly, to thrash.
12. (transitive, chiefly, US slang) To kill.
13. (transitive, baseball) To deliberately pitch a ball close to (a batter); to brush back.
14. (cryptocurrency) To attempt to identify the owner of (a cryptocurrency wallet) by sending tiny amounts of cryptocurrency.

• French: épousseter
• German: entstauben, abstauben
• Italian: spolverare
• Portuguese: desempoar
• Spanish: desempolvar, limpiar el polvo

• German: entstauben, abstauben
• Italian: spolverare
• Portuguese: desempoar
• Spanish: desempolvar, limpiar el polvo

• German: ein Sandbad nehmen, sandbaden

• French: pulvériser
• German: pudern, bestauben
• Portuguese: empoar
• Russian: опылять
• Spanish: espolvorear

• As an English surname, from the noun dust.
• As a north German - surname, from the noun Dust with the same meaning as above, from Middle Low German - and osx dust, from Proto-Germanic *dustą.

1. Surname.