fusty.

1. Stale and musty-smelling, especially from being shut up or poorly aired.

2. Old-fashioned or resistant to change in a dull, conventional way.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• fusty room
• fusty smell
• fusty cupboard

On the page

A fusty smell escaped from the cupboard.

The fusty room had not been aired for weeks.

She opened the window to clear the fusty air.

Usage notes

Primary category: gothic. Forms: Comparative fustier; superlative fustiest. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.