rusty adj.1
1. ill-tempered.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Antonio’s Revenge I ii: Thy rusty face doth look like the head of a roasted rabbit; fie upon’t. | |
| Diogenes Lanthorne 7: Three or fower olde rusty golde begetting widowes haue crown’d him with their wealthes. | |
 | Court and Times Charles I I 36: ... there is much urging and spurring the parliament for supply and expedition, in both which they will prove somewhat rusty [F&H]. | |
| Iconoclastes xxiv The master is too rusty or rich to say his own prayers [F&H]. | |
| Authentick Memoirs of Sally Salisbury 66: She, as the Saying is, rid very Rusty. | |
| ‘Sung in Two to One’ in Songster’s Companion 64: Adzooks, old Crusty! why so rusty, Stupid, queer, and mumpy? | |
| Diary (1893) I 22 Feb. 69: Every stage I was bothered with some proper rusty ‘divils’ [i.e. horses]. | |
| Bell’s Life in London 10 Apr. 2/3: [T]here vas such a holloring made my nag quite rusty. | |
| Ulster Gaz. 30 Dec. 4/1: The old brown hoss [...] a purty good one, but a leetle rusty at times. | |
| Satirist & Punch (Boston, MA) 1 Feb. 58/1: The old brown hoss [...] a purty good one, but a little rusty at times. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Sept. 55/1: His superficialities are often glaringly rusty. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Vocabulum 76: rusty Ill-natured. His tongue goes like a door on rusty hinges. | |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 139/2: The old fellow grew pretty rusty at being obliged to leave his ‘doss’ at that early hour. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 14 Sept. n.p.: Big Moll Johnson, the Amazon of ‘Hooker’s division,’ a ‘rusty’ old ‘gin pig,’ lost to virtue and wedded to sin, was before the ‘beakquere’ [...] for creating a disturbance in the ‘snoozing ken’. | |
| Low-Life Deeps 51: Why, if ever a woman – of the common sort, you understand – was to call me only half the names she calls me, I should turn rusty. | |
| Stray Leaves (2nd ser.) 158: He did turn most uncommonly rusty. He knocked down the apothecary and hospital-sergeant, and three of the extra guard shared the same fate. | |
| ‘’Arry on Angling’ in Punch 30 July 45/1: Jolter looked jest a mossel disgusted, and turned a bit rusty, for him. | |
| ‘The Patriotic’ in Mr Punch’s Model Music Hall 17: Bull gets rusty when you tax him. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Aus. Sl. Dict. 69: Rusty, cross, ill-tempered, etc. | |
| Marvel XIV:364 Oct. 2: We can mop up our crowd any day if they turn rusty! | |
| Sure 73: ‘I’m told dat all dat is needed den is [...] a cheerful temper not likely to get running rusty when de stage manager knocks everyting but de title out of me manuscript’. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | (con. 1920s) Emerald Square 28: He was very rusty at first but thawed out a bit before I left. |
2. (Aus.) of an area, unpleasant, threatening.
| Truth (Sydney) 21 Sept. 10/3: But there are some rusty places,/ [...] / Where things are a trifle shady, / And the copper never goes. |
3. anti-social.
| Pimp 49: Now get your rusty black ass out of my face. | |
| Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 166: Get up big rusty motherfucker, [it’s] you or me. | |
| From Bondage 342: Did that rusty bastard in the porkpie hat do that too ... once? |
In phrases
to misbehave, to act counter to discipline.
| Caleb Williams (1966) 77: I know none of the neighbouring gentry will, for fear, as they say, of encouraging their own tenants to run rusty. | |
| General Bounce (1891) 311: Don’t let a single man up till the women and children are all on deck. If any fellow runs rusty, knock him down. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(N.Z. prison) the anus.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 157/2: rusty bullet hole n. the anus. | |
| [ | | Kimberly’s Capital Punishment (2023) 131: My arsehole was a red- /Raw bullet-hole]. |
(N.Z. prison) a rapist.
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 157/2: rusty draper n. a rapist. |
1. (US) a veteran police officer; also as adj.
| Ringolevio 28: An old rusty-gun cop named Malloy had shown him around. |
2. (UK Und.) an armed robber who has retired from his profession.
| A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 20: I’m glad I’m getting out while I can. In criminal parlance, I am what is known as a ‘rusty gun.’. |
a surly, unpleasant old man.
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Rusty-gutts, an old blunt Fellow. | |
| New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| , | | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. |
| Hereford Times 12 Jan. 4/1: Broben came in [...] and called complainant [...] ‘rusty guts’. | |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 69: Rusty Guts, a blunt fellow. | |
| Und. Speaks n.p.: Rusty guts, an elderly convict. | |
| Cockney 275: If Tug Wilson has a gruff voice he will be called ‘Rustygut Tug Wilson.’. |
(UK Und.) diamond jewellery.
| New and Improved Flash Dict. |
the anus.
| Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: rusty sheriffs badge euph. Ride along Biffin bridge (qv) from John Wayne’s hairy saddlebags (qv) and there it is, right in the middle of kak canyon. Just before rump gulley. | |
| ‘A Day In The Life Of...’ 29 Apr. 🌐 The thought of a ‘crafty butcher’ (one who likes taking his meat around the back) pushing his ‘chocolate lollypop’ in my ‘rusty sheriff’s badge’ and into my ‘soil sump’ doesn’t really appeal. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Gayle 92/2: rusty starfish n. anus, rectal opening. |