English

Noun

doust ‎(uncountable)

1. (obsolete, West Country) Dust.

Verb

doust ‎(third-person singular simple present dousts, present participle dousting, simple past and past participle dousted)

1. (obsolete, West Country) To extinguish, to destroy, to kill.
   • Anonymous (1831) The Bristol Job Nott; or, Labouring Man's Friend: “[...] the Duke of Dorset charged in the list with "not known, but supposed forty thousand per year" (charitable supposition) had when formerly in office only about 3 or £4,000, and has not now, nor when the black list was printed, any office whatever -- (Much tumult, and cries of "shame" and "doust the liars")”
   • Fussel, E.F. (1867) Medical Times and Gazette, page 420: “"[...] I wished the above system of drainage to be carried out, but I met with this response from an official, in many matters a man entitled to the greatest consideration:- "I found that sort of thing at a house the other day, and I soon dousted it."”
   • Havergal, Francis Tebbs (1887) Herefordshire words & phrases, colloquial and archaic, about 1300 in number, current in the county: “"Him hit Jack on his head, it nearly dousted him."”
   • Clynton, Richard (1889) The Life of a Celebrated Buccaneer: “Look at me, mates! The glim of one of my skylights is dousted, and is battened down for ever.”
2. (obsolete, West Country) To dust.
3. (obsolete, mining, chiefly Cornwall) To separate dust from ore.
   • Lock, Charles George Warnford (1895) Economic mining: a practical handbook for the miner, the metallurgist and the merchant: “The ore is first cobbed and classed into (a) prile, (b) best dredge, and (c) crusher dredge; a is finished product; c is crushed, jigged, and huddled; b is dousted, or, after reducing in rolls to 8-mesh, dry-sifted in fine mesh hand sieves.”