rusty

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   covered with or consisting of rust

   a rusty machine

2. 2
   adj

   Of the rust color, reddish or reddish-brown.

   Alive? he might be dead for aught I know, / With that red gaunt and colloped neck a-strain, / And shut eyes underneath the rusty mane;

3. 3
   adj

   Lacking recent experience, out of practice, especially with respect to a skill or activity.

   Before the match, Hodgson had expressed the hope that his players would be fresh rather than rusty after an 18-day break from league commitments because of two successive postponements.

4. 4
   adj

   Of clothing, especially dark clothing: worn, shabby.

   He wore a black jacket, rusty and amorphous.

5. 5
   noun

   A gun or in particular an old or worn one.

   My angles dusty, two black hands on the rusty And I got uck from a peng ting, mad back but the chest busty

6. 6
   adj

   Discolored and rancid; reasty.

   rusty bacon

7. 7
   adj

   of the brown color of rust

8. 8
   adj

   ancient

Etymology

Ellipsis of rusty one more often used for this, or from the general epithet rusty given to various particular firearm names—earlier both were applied in Cockney rhyming slang for other machines, including swords in their day, but the present coinage has not more than a loose connection to this and is from the preference for used or antique firearms due to their being easier or cheaper to obtain.