MEANING
1. A reddish-brown coating that develops on iron or steel through exposure to moisture and air.
2. A loss of skill or effectiveness caused by inactivity; also, to decline through disuse.
3. A reddish-brown color resembling the coating that forms on corroded iron.
Use it for
describing corroded iron in an abandoned place; showing weather damaging metal fixtures; naming reddish deposits on neglected toolsDistinguishes moisture-related metal corrosion from organic rot, and also supports a precise metaphor for disuse. Writing functions: Decay / Deterioration.
Words that belong together
- a layer of rust
- covered in rust
- rust on the iron gate
On the page
Rust had swollen around the lock until the key would no longer turn.
A red streak of rust marked the basin beneath the broken tap.
It took several evenings at the piano to shake off the rust.
He feared that solitude had allowed his conversational skills to rust.
The curtains had faded from scarlet to a dull rust.
Word forms
- Base
- rust
- Past tense
- rusted
- Past participle
- rusted
- Present participle
- rusting
Usage notes
Material and color nouns are usually uncountable. Verb: rusts; rusted; rusted; rusting; both transitive and intransitive. Plant diseases or kinds of rust can be countable: rusts. Register: neutral. Commonness: common (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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