What's the difference between musty and stale?

Musty


Definition:

  • (n.) Having the rank, pungent, offencive odor and taste which substances of organic origin acquire during warm, moist weather; foul or sour and fetid; moldy; as, musty corn; musty books.
  • (n.) Spoiled by age; rank; stale.
  • (n.) Dull; heavy; spiritless.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Some 26 years later Laake can still recall every detail of the trial: his aching wrists cuffed behind his back; the musty smell of the courtroom; the steely voice of the young female judge.
  • (2) Ingestion by hens and broilers of specific chloroanisols present in some wood shavings used in poultry cages can result in a musty taste in poultry products.
  • (3) The commercial product may have a light-yellow to cream color with a musty odor (Hartley and Kidd, 1983).
  • (4) But going by the musty books lining the walls, it does look like this new incarnation might have more of an intellectual, introspective bent.
  • (5) The symbolism was not hard to fathom: here, cooed the pages showing candidates at home, was a bright, straightforward, modern party; an explosion of youthful colour along the musty, dark-wood corridors of traditional Spanish politics.
  • (6) Shattered skylights allow rain to fall inside and douse the musty hallways.
  • (7) Stay away from the courtyard rooms, which are darker and can get musty in the tropical heat.
  • (8) Stored in a musty room upstairs are thousands of historical posters and documents that he hopes one day to store in a national archive.
  • (9) Untreated PKU causes severe mental retardation, musty odor, hyperactivity, seizures, eczema and hypopigmentation.
  • (10) In common with most Arab countries, public access to official information in Egypt is almost nonexistent, with state archives buried beneath a musty web of security restrictions and a deeply entrenched government culture of destroying or hiding any records that could prove awkward.
  • (11) No one contracted the disease who had not something to do with this musty straw.
  • (12) Cultures of Penicillium expansum produce a musty, earthy odor.
  • (13) The women, who are here to promote their Girls Matter campaign, insist they can’t talk politics because they represent a charity and have to be neutral, but they can’t disguise their enthusiasm for this strange, musty old world.
  • (14) Moulds or fungi that grow in grains and seeds during storage and transport cause germination decrease, visible mouldiness, discoloration, musty or sour odours, caking, chemical and nutritional changes, reduction in processing quality, and form of mycotoxins.
  • (15) Both oct-1-en-3-ol and cis-2-octen-1-ol are thought to be responsible for the characteristic musty-fungal odor of certain fungi; the latter compound may be a useful chemical index of fungal growth.
  • (16) The characteristic non-specific uptake of dye from media into the colonies and their musty or earthy odour rendered them easily distinguishable from other organisms.
  • (17) Regal and robed, the justices of the US supreme court often cite musty edicts of centuries past and sheaves of legal reasoning accumulated over the decades.
  • (18) The saving grace is that he can present himself as a new broom, albeit with Augean stables rather than musty warehouses to be cleaned out.
  • (19) F. A. LINNIK (1938) noted that immediately before falling sick patients had been in close contact with musty straw.
  • (20) Updike typically gives us every beautifully rendered detail: the fall of morning light, the "musty cidery smell" of pine needles, the texture of the blanket they lie on.

Stale


Definition:

  • (n.) The stock or handle of anything; as, the stale of a rake.
  • (v. i.) Vapid or tasteless from age; having lost its life, spirit, and flavor, from being long kept; as, stale beer.
  • (v. i.) Not new; not freshly made; as, stele bread.
  • (v. i.) Having lost the life or graces of youth; worn out; decayed.
  • (v. i.) Worn out by use or familiarity; having lost its novelty and power of pleasing; trite; common.
  • (v. t.) To make vapid or tasteless; to destroy the life, beauty, or use of; to wear out.
  • (a.) To make water; to discharge urine; -- said especially of horses and cattle.
  • (v. i.) That which is stale or worn out by long keeping, or by use.
  • (v. i.) A prostitute.
  • (v. i.) Urine, esp. that of beasts.
  • (v. t.) Something set, or offered to view, as an allurement to draw others to any place or purpose; a decoy; a stool pigeon.
  • (v. t.) A stalking-horse.
  • (v. t.) A stalemate.
  • (v. t.) A laughingstock; a dupe.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This was due to the fact that stale bread was fed ad lib, rather than concentrates.
  • (2) That rock-star treatment then gets paid off with stale one-liners from the previous decade that sound like they were organized by shuffling notecards.
  • (3) Inside the carriage the temperature was stifling, the stench of unwashed bodies and stale urine overwhelming.
  • (4) In the first comments from Epstein’s representatives since the Guardian revealed on Friday that the prince had been named in a Florida court motion, an attorney for the disgraced financier said: “These are stale, rehashed allegations that lawyers are now attempting to repackage and spice up by adding the names of prominent people.” Virginia Roberts, who says she was 17 when she first met the Duke of York in London, claims she was forced to have sexual contact with him by Epstein, in London, New York and on his private island in the Caribbean during an “orgy”.
  • (5) Though the Bond series was in anything but trouble before Mendes’ arrival – and Craig’s – there was the sense of a certain amount of staleness towards the end of Pierce Brosnan’s run.
  • (6) The PassivHaus pioneers have focused on improving insulation, providing far better air-tightness and warming incoming air in winter, with the hotter stale air extracted from the house.
  • (7) Male, pale and stale is the epithet often used to describe the makeup of a charity board.
  • (8) The abortifacient property seems to decrease as the fruit becomes stale or ripe.
  • (9) He knew all about unconscious bias, was attuned to issues of diversity and was passionate about changing middle management composition which he said was “too male, stale and pale”.
  • (10) He resolutely refused to sit on the fence, and staleness, caused by watching stream upon stream of bad movies as well as good ones, never set in.
  • (11) Stale, flat and, alas, rapidly becoming unprofitable...” “What was he like as a person?” asked Dalgliesh.
  • (12) If you’re not bothered about instructions in another language, misprinted labels or biscuits that may be several months past their peak quality – but not stale – you can stock up for a fraction of the price you might pay in a regular shop.
  • (13) The measure of humidity, of peroxides and of the staleness of crumb are favourable for a good conservation.
  • (14) Overhead lights attached to ripped-out electrical wires hang suspended in the stale air and fading wallpaper peels off the walls like dead skin.
  • (15) For every 10 party hacks there were one or two sublime dissidents or innovators – Polanski and Wajda in Poland, Jancsó in Hungary, Dušan Makavejev in Yugoslavia – and we shouldn't throw out all these beautiful babies with the stale red bath water.
  • (16) Teams such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile and Algeria blew fresh air through the stale halls of international football's establishment with their teamwork and counter attacking flair.
  • (17) Northern Irish businesses are now able to trade across Europe, more people from across Europe have settled here and have provided a fresh perspective from the stale old sectarian divisions that Northern Ireland has been cursed with.
  • (18) This is welcome, as we believe that we offer a real alternative to the politics of austerity and the stale dogma of the Westminster parties.
  • (19) Americans have been hurting, but when we demanded solutions, too often Washington responded with the same stale mindset that led to failed policies like Obamacare.
  • (20) He should leave behind stale orthodoxies and trust his instinct that change is essential.