sooty

[ soot-ee, soo-tee ]
See synonyms for sooty on Thesaurus.com
adjective,soot·i·er, soot·i·est.
  1. covered, blackened, or smirched with soot.

  2. consisting of or resembling soot.

  1. of a black, blackish, or dusky color.

Origin of sooty

1
Middle English word dating back to 1200–50; see origin at soot, -y1

Other words from sooty

  • soot·i·ly, adverb
  • soot·i·ness, noun
  • un·soot·y, adjective

Words Nearby sooty

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use sooty in a sentence

  • The black of her dress was a sooty black, but you would only have called her hair black because there was nothing else to call it.

    Mushroom Town | Oliver Onions
  • It was an aged female that spoke; she sat on the ground all clad in a sooty garment.

  • Others, very dusty, came from beneath carpets, and lastly a sooty bundle was dragged down the chimney.

    Margaret Ogilvy | J. M. Barrie
  • The “sooty-fox” is a variety of the “Arctic,” distinguished from it only by its colour, which is of a uniform blackish brown.

  • There are lots of mice in this kitchen—sooty mice, not clean like ours—and I thought I'd try to catch them.

    The Well-Beloved | Thomas Hardy

British Dictionary definitions for sooty

sooty

/ (ˈsʊtɪ) /


adjectivesootier or sootiest
  1. covered with soot

  2. resembling or consisting of soot

Derived forms of sooty

  • sootily, adverb
  • sootiness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012