Meanings
- historicalpostpositionalusuallymedicineAbnormally dark or over-concentrated (associated with various states of discomfort or illness, specifically being too hot or dry).First known use 15th c.
[S]o in fevers and hot diſtempers from choler aduſt is cauſed a blackneſſe in our tongues, teeth and excretions: […]
1650, Thomas Browne, “A Digression Concerning Blacknesse”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 6th book, page 2831 more example
From melancholy aduſt ariſes one kind [of humour]; from Choler another, which is moſt brutiſh: another from Flegme, which is dull; and the laſt from Blood, which is beſt.
1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Of the Matter of Melancholy”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 1, member 3, subsection [3], page 34
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinadustus“burnt, scorched”
- Middle Frenchaduste
- Englishadust
From Middle French aduste, and its source, Latin adustus (“burnt, scorched”), past participle of adūrere.
More words from Middle French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with adust
Anagrams
Cite this entry
adust. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adust
“adust.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adust. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “adust,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adust.
Source: adust on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.