trusty
Americanadjective
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faithful or reliable
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archaic trusting
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of trusty
Middle English word dating back to 1175–1225; see origin at trust, -y 1
Explanation
Use trusty to describe something you can count on, especially if you've relied on it for a long time. You don't need a fancy bike—your trusty roller skates will get you to school on time! This informal adjective is perfect for talking about people and objects that are tried-and-true, even if they're a little worn out. If your friend shows off her brand new laptop, you could say, "I'm happy with my trusty old typewriter!" Before the 14th century, trusty meant "trusting." As a noun, it can also be used to mean "trustworthy person," particularly a prisoner who has shown good conduct.
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:
She implemented wry wit like a tactical defense, a trusty tool in her arsenal that could disarm an opponent and defuse tricky conversations.
From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2026
Ben Jones, the actor best known for portraying trusty mechanic Cooter Davenport on “The Dukes of Hazzard” before serving two terms in Congress as a representative from Georgia, has died.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
With his trusty bow and arrow, he hunts game and safeguards his twin sister Asa – who, for unexplained reasons, resides behind bars in a dark cell.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026
Our trusty babysitter in the back—our dog Huckleberry—also needed to make a pit stop or two.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
It did indeed turn into the trusty guitar in due course, but not before it had cross-fertilised with another medieval instrument, the citole, whose chief successor in England was unhelpfully called the cittern.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
The housing area involved, Aloma said, was a dorm in Module 3600 that houses 16 to 20 inmate workers known as trusties.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2023
Wearing his trademark cowboy hat and boots, Blakely said he had fewer privileges than jail trusties and denied receiving special treatment from his former staff.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 5, 2021
“It’s always sad when one of the trusties has to retire,” Stenson told PGATour.com's Andrew Tursky on Tuesday at the Houston Open.
From Golf Digest ● Oct. 9, 2019
A bit later, Janet took me past the guardhouse, where Sanders used to hang out with the troopers, and the driveway, where her daughter played basketball with prison trusties who worked at the mansion.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 17, 2018
Two inmate trusties who had been mopping the floor stopped to watch the officers struggle with the wheelchair and the cage.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
Or a better, trustier reputation, as opposed to one that investors and potential customers immediately associate with stories about an oddball founder who lost a bunch of money.
From Slate ● Nov. 8, 2023
The biggest crypto execs and celebrities believe that they are the industry’s adults in the room, here to offer a better and trustier product than Bankman-Fried did.
From Slate ● Oct. 3, 2023
Her backhand was the trustier weapon, and Gauff drilled one down the line to claim her first game.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 4, 2022
That was enough to kick off a jam session lasting another hour, with Phumiphon, joined by some of his own royal band, switching between his brand-new clarinet and his trustier saxophone.
From Time Magazine Archive
This learn from me, Our master's secret sleeps with trustier tongues, Than will unlock themselves to carls like you.
From The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 by Charles Lamb
Smoke is uptown Manhattan’s trustiest home for world-class, straight-ahead jazz; the venue also runs its own in-house record label.
From New York Times ● Dec. 20, 2018
Email a photo of you and your trustiest ride to us at [email protected].
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2018
The protagonist of “A Legacy of Spies” is Peter Guillam, trustiest of Smiley’s operators in the field, who has long since retired to a farm in Brittany.
From Economist ● Sep. 7, 2017
The real potential in YouNow celebrity is not that broadcasters will become movie stars some day—it’s that social media broadcasting will soon subsume film as the world’s trustiest star-making vehicle.
From Slate ● Dec. 9, 2015
He had regarded me, from almost the very beginning of our acquaintance, as his best and trustiest friend,—in short, as just what dear Emma had told him he should find me.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 109, November, 1866 by Various
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.
