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musty

UK/ˈmʌsti/US/ˈmʌsti/
adjectiveB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,662 of 15,258leans spoken

Musty means smelling of damp and long shut away. A musty smell, musty books, musty air.

The smell is mould and the compounds it gives off, which is why it clings to closed rooms, old paper and cellars — and why airing and drying are the only real fix. It is not the same as damp, which is the condition, or mildew, which is the growth. Note fusty, which means the same and is slightly older.

Definitions of musty

  1. 1adjectivemustySmelling of damp and long shut away.B2+

    “The old books in the attic had a musty smell.”

    synonyms: stale, fusty

musty is a quality of stale smell.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *mews-

  2. Middle English

    musty

  3. English, today

    musty

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English musty; further origin, possibly from one of the following:

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Texture & Touch

Practise this word

musty in the wild

  • The breath has a sweet, fecal, or musty smell to it.

    Fetor hepaticus

  • Like other nitrogen mustards, HN1 is an oily liquid with a faint fishy or musty odor.

    HN1 (nitrogen mustard)

  • The exterior has a musty odour reminiscent of hay.

    Pouligny-Saint-Pierre cheese

  • With a musty scent, the cheese is extremely mild for a blue cheese and has a dry taste.

    Fourme de Montbrison

  • MIB has a distinct earthy or musty odor, which most people can easily smell.

    2-Methylisoborneol

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.