Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A light sprinkling.
- noun Slang A beating or defeat.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act of casting dust or powder upon anything; specifically, in ceramics, sprinkling over the damp, unburned clay, through a canvas bag, powdered lead or galena, which in the kiln will fuse into a glaze. This method of lead-glazing was employed in England for common red pottery. See
lead-glaze andplumbiferous , 2. - noun The act of brushing the dust from a surface, as of a table, chair, floor, etc.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb Present participle of
dust . - noun A light snowfall.
- noun A light covering of something.
- noun The act of removing dust from, as a household
chore . - noun A
beating .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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DROPPINGS Turkey droppings are easiest to find on bare ground, especially in dusting areas or in scratchings.
How To Track Turkeys 2005
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So while the Democratic establishment is once again dusting off its tried-and-untrue swing voter strategy, Dean is running, as he put it, a campaign based on addition, not subtraction.
January 2004 2004
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This not unusual, but recently I have begun to note that the bottom lip of the urinals are covered with a thin dusting of pubic hair.
Your Morning TMFI zoethe 2004
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The thin dusting of snow has become crackling ice here in Belgium, it’s VERY very cold today and it’s going to be as cold for the rest of the week.
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There is enough instability to foster snow flurries 30% chance but a dusting should be the max as moisture is in short supply.
Forecast: Snow long gone but windy David Streit 2011
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As a result, museums are becoming more comfortable with the idea of dusting off their fakes and forgeries and hanging them on the wall to demonstrate the incredible lengths to which great forgers will go to pull the wool over the art world's eyes.
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The cotton gloves, too, were offensive, as were also the thick shoes which had been dusted; but the dusting was the great sin.
The Claverings 2005
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We must give up the idea of dusting pasture so there will be no ticks there, so that pirolasmosis will not occur, and so forth, and we must fight to wipe out ticks, fight to wipe out ticks.
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The cotton gloves, too, were offensive, as were also the thick shoes which had been dusted; but the dusting was the great sin.
The Claverings Anthony Trollope 1848
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Then she took to the idea of dusting off the variety genre in 2008 -- but to disastrous results on NBC.
Variety.com 2010
whichbe commented on the word dusting
A contranym: when dusting furniture, this means "to remove dust from"; but when "dusting for fingerprints", or when used as a noun ("a dusting of snow"), it means respectively "to apply dust" or "the application of dust". (Wikipedia)
June 6, 2008