Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Dusty.
  • Burned; scorched; become dry by heat; hot and fiery.
  • Looking as if burned or scorched.
  • In pathology, having much heat: said of the blood and other fluids of the body; hence, ardent; sanguine; impetuous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Inflamed or scorched; fiery.
  • adjective Looking as if or scorched; sunburnt.
  • adjective (Med.) Having much heat in the constitution and little serum in the blood. [Obs.] Hence: Atrabilious; sallow; gloomy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective burned brown by the sun
  • adjective dried out by heat or excessive exposure to sunlight

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French aduste, and its source, Latin adūstus ("burnt, scorched"), past participle of adūrere.

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Examples

  • These symptoms vary according to the mixture of those four humours adust, which is unnatural melancholy.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • His complexion was of the kind which used to be called adust -- burnt up with inner fires; his visage was long and somewhat harshly designed, very apt, it would seem, to the expression of hitter ironies or stern resentments, but at present bright with friendly pleasure.

    The Emancipated George Gissing 1880

  • But the other sorts of saving and investment adust to the budget deficit.

    Sumner's FAQ, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • What if the Iranians actually see Israel as an expansionist power seeking to adust its borders at the expense of fellow Muslims.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009

  • When I returned today from the College, I was surprised to see a broad grin distending the adust countenance of the faithful James Wilkinson, which, as the circumstance seldom happens above once a year, was matter of some surprise.

    Redgauntlet 2008

  • The temperature of the brain is corrupted by it, the humours adust, the eyes made to sink into the head, choler increased, and the whole body inflamed: and, as may be added out of Galen, 3. de sanitate tuendo,

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • Those usual signs appearing in the bodies of such as are melancholy, be these cold and dry, or they are hot and dry, as the humour is more or less adust.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • If it proceed from blood adust, or that there be a mixture of blood in it, [2562] such are commonly ruddy of complexion, and high-coloured, according to

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • But if it be stopped, and cannot have his way, it becometh adust, and thereby malign and venomous.

    The Essays 2007

  • Purgetur si ejus dispositio venerit ad adust, humoris, et phlebotomizetur.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

Comments

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  • JM adjusts adust additions so they cheer up a bit.

    June 13, 2010

  • (adjective) - Burnt, scorched; hot and fiery. From Latin ad, to, and ustus, burnt. Hence adustible, that may be burnt up, and adustion, the act of burning, scorching. --Rev. John Boag's Imperial Lexicon, c. 1850

    April 22, 2018