How to Use musty in a Sentence

musty

adjective
  • The point is the paper, the poignantly musty smell of the past.
    Jason Guriel, Longreads, 10 Nov. 2022
  • The musty smell of grass, tinged with horse manure, hung in the air.
    Ingfei Chen, The New Yorker, 29 May 2019
  • The musty, dusty smell of old books brings me back to those moments.
    Hazlitt, 7 June 2023
  • Not unless the potatoes taste like the back of a musty pantry.
    Mike Sutter, San Antonio Express-News, 12 July 2018
  • The front door was open and a musty smell perfumed the sidewalk.
    Ron Grossman, Chicago Tribune, 15 Jan. 2023
  • But the line is like a musty old tee-shirt the President can’t or won’t throw away.
    Clifton Leaf, Fortune, 1 Oct. 2020
  • The old case files, musty smelling from years in a storage unit, speak to Sutton.
    al, 13 Feb. 2020
  • The musty shelves, richly redolent of the past, quickly calmed me.
    Danny Heitman, The Christian Science Monitor, 17 Jan. 2022
  • The nose shows nice, musty aromas with hazelnuts, pear and star fruit.
    Tan Vinh and Owen Bargreen, Anchorage Daily News, 16 Dec. 2022
  • This is writing the songs and singing the songs in a world not much different from a musty gym full of haters.
    Danyel Smith, New York Times, 8 Feb. 2023
  • The tape reels sat there for decades, quiet and ignored in a musty cardboard box.
    Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press, 9 Aug. 2020
  • The books were old, musty, and set in microscopic type.
    Seija Rankin, EW.com, 18 Aug. 2020
  • But the poor often live in cheap, damp and musty banjiha.
    Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times, 10 Aug. 2022
  • The empty pie cases can be seen through a small hole in the door; put your nose near it, and the empty eatery smells musty.
    Los Angeles Times, 21 Dec. 2021
  • As anyone who has walked into a musty house knows, molds can emit a strong odor, too.
    Melissa Locker, Southern Living, 18 May 2021
  • The chamber meets in a cavernous room with velvet curtains and a musty scent.
    Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2021
  • People use their fine flatware and want them more at arm’s reach, not stowed high away on a shelf in a musty box.
    Clare Miers, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 31 Jan. 2024
  • Monitor the area over the next few days for the return of visible mold or musty odors.
    Dan Diclerico, Good Housekeeping, 3 Feb. 2022
  • Both sides give off the dull, musty smells of work-glove function: stale sawdust and grease pierced with top notes of gasoline.
    Liz Arnold, Longreads, 11 July 2018
  • In the age of the internet, songs, books, movies — musty archives from the past — often rise up, and in the parlance of the day, even go viral.
    Dallas News, 2 Feb. 2023
  • And to wet land, to those dirt streets that are not paved and where the rain falls, raising the steam along with a musty smell and a feeling of relaxation.
    Paula Móvil, Condé Nast Traveler, 1 Sep. 2021
  • If your allergies start acting up or there’s a musty smell in any room, that’s a tell-tale sign of mold.
    Los Angeles Times, 29 Mar. 2022
  • Tear down the musty relic, or replace the back wall with glass, or add heliports and cruise ship docks.
    John King, San Francisco Chronicle, 6 Mar. 2021
  • The rooms were musty, and the hallway outside had a thin layer of water covering the linoleum.
    New York Times, 7 Sep. 2021
  • Replace flour with a foul, musty, or sour odor or if the texture and coloring have changed.
    Perri Ormont Blumberg, Southern Living, 20 July 2023
  • This history lesson wasn’t musty or in black-and-white.
    Los Angeles Times, 1 June 2022
  • Its aroma changed from musty and basement-like to buttery.
    New York Times, 15 Oct. 2019
  • Within the cave, a musty smell wafts through the humid, cool air, and the sound of dripping water echoes along its limestone walls.
    Wired, 10 July 2022
  • Inside the tunnels, rivulets of icy water drip from the ceilings and the air is frigid and musty with ammonia.
    Shoshi Parks, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Jan. 2022
  • And it must be asked: As the subject of a potential summer blockbuster, isn’t Elvis a bit … musty?
    New York Times, 25 May 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'musty.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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