English edit

Etymology edit

dust +‎ ball

Noun edit

dustball (plural dustballs)

  1. A ball of dust.
  2. (archaic) A ball of grain-dust formed in the intestine of a diseased horse.
    • 1885, George Armatage, Every Man His Own Horse Doctor, page 336:
      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.