crusty

Etymology

From Middle English, equivalent to crust +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹʌsti/
• Rhymes: -ʌsti

Adjective

crusty (comparative crustier, superlative crustiest)

1. Having a crust, especially a thick one
   • 1899, Kate Chopin, The Awakening

     No one was there. But there was a cloth spread upon the table that stood against the wall, and a cover was laid for one, with a crusty brown loaf and a bottle of wine beside the plate

2. (figuratively, of a person or behavior) Short-tempered and gruff but, sometimes, with a harmless or benign inner nature; peevish, surly, harsh.
   • '1922, Henry William Fischer, Abroad with Mark Twain and Eugene Field

     Then somebody told a story about the Swedish Majesty's last sojourn in Norway. There, at a railway station, Oscar ran against a crusty old farmer who thought himself a lot better than a mere king and kept his hat on.

3. Of very low quality; inferior.

Noun

crusty (plural crusties)

1. (chiefly Britain) A tramp or homeless young person with poor cleanliness.
2. (slang) Dried eye mucus.
   • 1999, Vinnie Hansen, Murder, Honey, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 155:

     Against the backdrop of muted stripes of color, Julieanne picked at her eyes’ crusties, and then combed her hair with the hand.

   • 2003, Mary O'Connell, "Saint Anne", in Living with Saints, Grove Press, →ISBN, page 209:

     Jesus, how could I bear the sight of him—sleep crusties lodged in the corners of his rheumy eyes, a puff of chest hair cresting like meringue over the top of his V-neck sweater, khakis jacked up to his breastbone—when I was used to looking at the singularly lovely Isabella?

   • 2005, Jeffrey Dinsmore, I, an Actress: The Autobiography of Karen Jamey, Contemporary Press, →ISBN, page 51:

     I wiped the crusties from my eyes, threw on a sundress, and wandered out into the living room.

3. (chiefly Britain) A member of an urban subculture with roots in punk and grebo, characterized by antiestablishment attitudes and an unkempt appearance.

References

• crusty in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• “crusty” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “crusty” in Microsoft's Encarta World English Dictionary, North American Edition (2007)
• "crusty" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002)
• "crusty (adj. easily annoyed)" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
• "crusty (n. an unwashed person)" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
• “crusty” in the Compact Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 2007)
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
• Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary (1987-1996)

Anagrams

• curtsy