dusting

Pluraldustings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of dust.

   The caretaker was dusting the picture frames in the gallery.

   Dusting the high windows required a ladder and a long cloth.

   Note

   The -ing form of a verb that works in two opposite directions. Dusting a shelf takes dust off, but dusting a cake with sugar puts powder on. The object and a with-phrase usually make the meaning clear: dust the frames, dust the tray with flour. Without an object it can mean general cleaning (she spent the morning dusting) or a bird rolling in dry earth.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of removing dust from furniture and other surfaces, as a household chore.

   A quick dusting of the living room left every surface gleaming.

   She added dusting to the weekend list before the relatives visited.

   Similarcleaning, wipe

   Note

   A chore word that usually takes the definite article: you do the dusting, just as you do the laundry. It is uncountable in that use but becomes countable when separate rounds are meant. Francis Hopkinson Smith's Peter (1908) has a household ordering "certain dustings and arrangings of furniture." Powder left on a surface is a different noun, a light covering.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A light covering of something, such as a thin layer of powder or fine particles.

   A faint dusting of flour still clung to the baker's apron.

   The old workshop wore a dusting of sawdust across every bench.

   Similarsprinkling, coating, film, layer, trace

   Note

   The noun from the sprinkling half of the two-way verb, not the cleaning half. It nearly always appears as a dusting of followed by the substance: a dusting of confectioner's sugar, of flour, of sawdust. Snow takes this construction so often that a dusting on its own can mean a light snowfall. Adjectives like faint, fine and light go before it.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A light snowfall that leaves only a thin layer on the ground.

   Overnight a dusting whitened the rooftops without closing any roads.

   The hikers set out under a fresh dusting that crunched underfoot.

   Similarsprinkling, coating

5. 5
   nouncolloquialcountable

   A physical beating given to someone.

   The loan shark's men handed the gambler a dusting in the alley.

   After that dusting, he kept well clear of the rival crew.

   Similarbeating, thrashing, hiding, pasting, going-over

6. 6
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A comfort behavior in which a bird works fine dirt through its feathers to keep them in condition; dustbathing.

   After a thorough dusting, the sparrow shook the loose grit from its wings.

   The flock took turns dusting in the warm hollow by the fence.

Showing meanings only. Show all 6