adjective
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consisting of or resembling mist
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obscured by or as if by mist
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indistinct; blurred
the misty past
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of misty
before 900; Middle English; Old English mistig. See mist, -y 1
Explanation
When it's misty out, there's a heavy fog. The air is thick with moisture, and there's just barely a light rain. When the air is foggy or hazy, you've got a misty situation. It isn't easy to see through misty weather, which happens most often in the morning because of moisture in the air. Your eyes can get misty too, when you're about to cry because you're sad or just have allergies. In fact, people who are embarrassed about crying will often joke, "It's getting misty in here."
Vocabulary lists containing misty
Beowulf vocabulary
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -y
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Restaurants were packed with diners and hotels were fully booked with tourists looking to soak in the region’s misty redwood forests and dramatic ocean views.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
A sniper can also operate in all weather, unlike drones that struggle in cloudy or misty conditions, said Coyote, who commands a 28-strong sniper unit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
A striking new pitviper with a vivid grass-green body and amber-like eyes has been discovered in the misty mountains of western Sichuan, China.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 22, 2026
Less grey and misty weather on Thursday morning and more sunshine will allow temperatures in England and Wales to rise rapidly with the warmth drawn up from Europe on a southerly breeze.
From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2026
I can’t stop my eyes from getting misty.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
Like a lot of farmers, 54-year-old Graham Wilson from Dylife in Powys juggles a few different businesses, one of which involves heading up into the mistier fields and forests, whatever the weather.
From BBC ● Mar. 8, 2026
Gray and damp at 10 a.m., it proved grayer, mistier and wetter at 6 p.m.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 10, 2023
But this version of “The Visit” has another dimension, too, a mistier one that exalts the notion of deathless love.
From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2015
The “twilight” of the exhibition’s title has as much to do with the mistier regions of consciousness as with the borderlands of real-world time and space.
From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2010
And with him was a dimmer, mistier specter that she recognized as Billy.
From The Valley of the Moon by Jack London
“I think we will leave the lesson here for today,” said Professor Trelawney in her mistiest voice.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
That has always a great effect upon the English, whose feudal notions are rather of the mistiest, and principally derived from Waverley.”
From Tales from Blackwood, Volume 1 by Various
It was as picturesque as Battersea in Whistler's mistiest days.
From Shandygaff by Christopher Morley
Yet Leith Hill, even on the mistiest day, can give the true notion of height.
From Highways and Byways in Surrey by Hugh Thomson
Experiments were indeed being made at the same time, with a view to armour-plating the hulls of ships, but all that was still in the dimmest and mistiest future.
From Memoirs (Vieux Souvenirs) of the Prince de Joinville by Lady Mary Sophia (Hely-Hutchinson) Loyd
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
