rust

1. 1.

   become destroyed by water, air, or a corrosive such as an acid

   “The metal corroded”

   “The pipes rusted”

   Synonymscorrode

   Broaderdecay

   Narrowerfret
2. 2.

   cause to deteriorate due to the action of water, air, or an acid

   “The acid corroded the metal”

   “The steady dripping of water rusted the metal stopper in the sink”

   Synonymscorrodeeat

   Broaderdamage
3. 3.

   become coated with oxide

   Broaderoxidise

1. 1.

   of the brown color of rust

   Synonymsrustyrust-brown

   Similarchromatic

Other forms of rust

plural

rusts·

past tense

rusted·

present participle

rusting·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about rust

What does rust mean?

rust means "a red or brown oxide coating on iron or steel caused by the action of oxygen and moisture". That is the primary sense; the word has 8 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in rust?

rust has 1 syllable: rust. In IPA it is /ˈɹʌst/.

What is another word for rust?

Close synonyms include rusting, rust fungus, corrode, corrode, eat. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is rust a common word?

rust is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.