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I read a paragraph on the BBC Webpage

In his interview to the BBC in February, Mr Kejriwal wore a rumpled sweater and his "bare feet were clad in well-worn sandals with a relaxed coating of dust".*

What do they mean by "relaxed coating of dust"?

I searched for this phrase, but I cannot find the answer.

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4 Answers 4

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it's poetic license.

It adds to the overall image of someone in extremely casual, if not actually scruffy clothes - & who doesn't care about it.

The headline of the article you linked gives that away right at the start…

The leader of India's newest party, Arvind Kejriwal, is known for his austere lifestyle and simple clothes.

… and goes on entirely about his sense of 'style' or lack thereof. It barely mentions politics at all.

His shoes are dusty. He is relaxed. The addition of 'relaxed' to the description of dusty shoes gives the feeling that this is not a new or temporary condition for his shoes; it is how they always are.
The combination of the two ideas is imaginary, yet conveys the imagery of his lack of concern with his visual appearance.

An aside - dust could also be described as agitated, disturbed, angry, insidious - all of which are anthropomorphic terms to give the idea of some kind of emotional state to an inanimate substance.

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    well explained! +1
    – Maulik V
    Nov 27, 2014 at 9:24
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A comfortable chair is not, itself, comfortable, but the person sitting in it is supposed to be.

A relaxed coating of dust works in a similar way. The coating of dust on the sandals shows that the person wearing the sandals did not bother about cleaning them before coming to the interview. That is seen as a sign that that person is relaxed.

Searching on the phrase is probably not very helpful, since it is not a standard phrase. It is a common way of applying adjectives, though. For example, a demure skirt does not actually mean the skirt is shy or modest, but rather, the woman wearing it.

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  • +1 too good! :) however, a little query. The structure of a comfortable chair and a relaxed coating of dust is different. The word that has confused the OP is probably relaxed with dust and not anything that we generally find relaxing i.e. chair, bed, movie!
    – Maulik V
    Nov 27, 2014 at 9:24
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    The (presence of the) dust indicates the relaxed state of mind. It simply is not a common association, so I cannot make it common :)
    – oerkelens
    Nov 27, 2014 at 9:43
  • err...no. I wouldn't say comfortable chair and a demure skirt are similar to a relaxed coating of dust in terms of usage. At least the supposed similarity you propose isn't what the op seems to be asking about.
    – anotherDev
    Nov 27, 2014 at 14:07
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    @Sam: could you elaborate on why the usage is so different in your eyes? I agree that the layer of dust is not strictly worn by the person that the adjective relaxed applies to, but it is directly related to that person, in the same way the chair is related to the sitter and the skirt is related to the wearer.
    – oerkelens
    Nov 27, 2014 at 14:12
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I think they are just talking about a very thin layer of dust that had settled on his sandals. "so it is not copious amounts of dust but a very relaxed layer.

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It means he was a chill dude and therefore he hadn't washed his feet as an up-tight, foot-washing sort might do. Perhaps not lazy, quite... but just relaxed, man.

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  • I understand what you're trying to say, but I'm a native English speaker. I'm not sure this is is helpful to someone who is learning English.
    – ColleenV
    Nov 27, 2014 at 18:12
  • You're right. I've removed the word "like" so that it's grammatically correct now.
    – CommaToast
    Nov 27, 2014 at 21:03

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