Powder vs Dust - What's the difference?
powder | dust |
The fine particles to which any dry substance is reduced by pounding, grinding, or triturating, or into which it falls by decay; dust.
* (rfdate) (William Shakespeare):
A mixture of fine dry, sweet-smelling particles applied to the face or other body parts, to reduce shine or to alleviate chaffing.
* 1912 , :
An explosive mixture used in gunnery, blasting, etc.; gunpowder.
(informal) Light, dry, fluffy snow.
To reduce to fine particles; to pound, grind, or rub into a powder.
To sprinkle with powder, or as with powder.
* (rfdate) :
To be reduced to powder; to become like powder.
To use powder on the hair or skin.
To sprinkle with salt; to corn, as meat.
(uncountable) Fine, dry particles of matter found in the air and covering the surface of objects, typically consisting of soil lifted up by the wind, pollen, hair, etc.
(countable) The act of cleaning by dusting.
* 2010 , Joan Busfield, Michael Paddon, Thinking About Children: Sociology and Fertility in Post-War England (page 150)
(obsolete) A single particle of earth or other material.
* Shakespeare
The earth, as the resting place of the dead.
* Bible, Job vii. 21
The earthy remains of bodies once alive; the remains of the human body.
* Tennyson
(figurative) Something worthless.
* Shakespeare
(figurative) A low or mean condition.
* Bible, 1 Sam. ii. 8
(slang, dated) cash; money (in reference to gold dust).
(mathematics) A totally disconnected set of points with a fractal structure.
To remove dust from.
* , chapter=12
, title= To remove dust; to clean by removing dust.
Of a bird, to cover itself in sand or dry, dusty earth.
To spray or cover something with fine powder or liquid.
To leave; to rush off.
* 1939 , (Raymond Chandler), (The Big Sleep) , Penguin 2011, p. 75:
To reduce to a fine powder; to levigate.
In transitive terms the difference between powder and dust
is that powder is to sprinkle with salt; to corn, as meat while dust is to spray or cover something with fine powder or liquid.In intransitive terms the difference between powder and dust
is that powder is to use powder on the hair or skin while dust is of a bird, to cover itself in sand or dry, dusty earth.powder
English
Alternative forms
* powdre (obsolete)Noun
- Grind their bones to powder small.
- She was redolent of violet sachet powder, and had warm, soft, white hands, but she danced divinely, moving as smoothly as the tide coming in.
Derived terms
* Atlas powder * baking powder * Bolivian marching powder * powder blue * powder burn * powder down * powder-down feather * powder-down patch * powder hose * powder hoy * powder magazine * powder mine * powder monkey * powder post * powder puff * powder room * take a powderVerb
(en verb)- to powder the hair
- A circling zone thou seest / Powdered with stars.
- Some salts powder easily.
- She paints and powders .
Synonyms
* (to reduce to fine particles) pound, grind, comminute, pulverize, trituratedust
English
Noun
- once they start school, I mean you can do a room out one day, the next day it only needs a dust , doesn't it?
- to touch a dust of England's ground
- I shall sleep in the dust .
- And you may carve a shrine about my dust .
- And by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust .
- [God] raiseth up the poor out of the dust .
Derived terms
* angel dust * bite the dust * catch dust * dust ball * dustbin, dust bin * dust devil * dustbowl, dust bowl * dust bunny * dust filter * dustman * dust mask * dustpan * duststorm * dust trap * dust-up * dusty * fairy dust * goofer dust * pixie dust * smart dust, smartdust * stardust * turn to dustVerb
(en verb)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.}}
- He added in a casual tone: ‘The girl can dust . I'd like to talk to you a little, soldier.’
- (Sprat)