adjective
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having or characterized by a crust, esp having a thick crust
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having a rude or harsh character or exterior; surly; curt
a crusty remark
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of crusty
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at crust, -y 1
Explanation
The adjective crusty is good for describing something that is crisp on the outside, like a loaf of French bread. You can describe something with a crunchy outer layer and a softer inside as crusty, but you can also use the word to mean "crabby" or "ill-tempered." Your mean old neighbor who yells at kids to get off his lawn is crusty, for example. While the literal meaning is older, this "cranky or surly" meaning has been around since the 1500s. The root of both is the Latin crusta, "rind, crust, shell or bark."
Vocabulary lists containing crusty
Out of the Dust
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The Secret Garden
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When I Was the Greatest
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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.
To make it a party, serve some good crusty bread and salt-flecked butter on the side, along with a bottle of crisp Californian or Italian white wine.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026
Contrary to the crusty, chaotic libertinism of their shows, the band is disarmingly sweet and funny in person despite being duly crude.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 15, 2026
Unusually dry conditions and unseasonably high temperatures are making Augusta National’s greens “firm, crusty, and bouncy” for the Masters.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026
Similar to onions and a hollowed loaf of crusty bread, you most definitely can stuff a tomato.
From Salon • Apr. 6, 2026
It was another turtle, a homed turtle of enormous size, its dark green shell mottled with brown and overgrown with water moss and crusty black river molluscs.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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.
