1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Dusty. Not so dusty, adv. phr. (common).—A term of approval; ‘not so
bad’; ‘so-so.’
1854. F. E. Smedley, Harry Coverdale, ch. xlii. ‘Why is the fact of
the contents of a backgammon-board having been thrown out of the
window like Milton’s chef d’œuvre?’ Do you give it up? ‘Because
it’s a pair o’dice lost.’ None so dusty that—eh? for a commoner
like me?
1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 28. ‘Well, my dear,’
said Butters in the most patronising way, ‘I know I’m not so dusty,
and if it wasn’t for my disgusting weight I’d pretty soon let ’em
see at Newmarket what I can do.’
Dusty-Bob, subs. (common).—A scavenger.
Dustypoll or Dusty-nob, subs. (old).—A miller. [Dusty, = floury, +
poll, or nob = the head.]
Dutch. An epithet of inferiority. A witness, no doubt, to the
long-standing hatred engendered by the bitter fight for the supremacy
of the seas between England and Holland in the seventeenth century.