Dustball

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A ball of dust.
  2. 2
    A ball of grain-dust formed in the intestine of a diseased horse. archaic

    "Long residence in lime districts had furnished the experience, that phosphatic calculi are not even as common as among the horses and ponies of coal-mines; and, further, that both phosphatic calculi, and more generally mixed or the dustball kind, are very prevalent in those pits, and even districts above ground, where no lime-water whatever can be obtained."

Example

More examples

"Long residence in lime districts had furnished the experience, that phosphatic calculi are not even as common as among the horses and ponies of coal-mines; and, further, that both phosphatic calculi, and more generally mixed or the dustball kind, are very prevalent in those pits, and even districts above ground, where no lime-water whatever can be obtained."

Etymology

From dust + ball.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.