English Explanatory Dictionary

dirt

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Soil or earth.
  2. A stain or spot (on clothes etc); any foreign substance that worsens appearance.
  3. Previously unknown facts or rumors about a person.
  4. Meanness; sordidness.
  5. In placer mining, earth, gravel, etc., before washing.
  6. Freckles.
  7. Excrement; dung.
verb
  1. To make foul or filthy; soil; befoul; dirty
noun
  1. Acronym of Deposit Interest Retention Tax.

Pronunciation

dût /dɜːt/ dûrt /dɝt/ en-us-dirt.ogg /dɪɾt/ /døːt/ /deːt/ [deːθ̠] /dɛːt/

Word forms

dirt dirts durt dirting dirted

Etymology

From Middle English drit (“excrement”), from Old Norse drit (“excrement”), from Proto-Germanic *dritą, *dritō (“excrement”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreyd-, *treydʰ- (“to have diarrhea”). Cognate with dialectal Danish and Norn drit (“excrement”), Norwegian dritt (“excrement”), dialectal Swedish dret (“shit”), Faroese and Icelandic drit (“bird excrement”), Dutch drijten (“to defecate”), drits (“dirt, mud, filth”), drijt and dreet (“excrement”), Low German drieten (“to defecate”), Driet (“shit”), regional German Driss (“shit”), Old English ġedrītan (“to defecate”). The word originally referred to excrement before shifting to the current sense of "soil". For a semantic parallel, see Norwegian skitt (“dirt, filth, grime, mud”), from Old Norse skítr (“shit”), which is cognate with English shit.

Synonyms

filth gossip kompromat

Derived words

bedirt common as dirt dig up dirt dirt bag dirtbag dirtball dirt bed dirt bike dirtbike dirtbird dirtboard dirt-box dirtbrain dirt cake dirt cheap dirt-cheap dirt chute dirt dauber dirt-dauber dirt devil dirten dirtfall dirt farmer dirt farming dirt file dirtful dirthead dirthole dirt jumping dirtless dirtlike dirtman dirt nap dirt pie dirt poor dirt-poor dirtproof dirt road dirt sandwich dirtside dirtsome dirt sticks dirt track dirtwad dirty dirt yard dish the dirt dog dirt do someone dirt dumb as dirt eat dirt fill dirt hit the dirt older than dirt pay dirt permanent dirt pound dirt snirt take a dirt nap throw dirt

Translations

Arabic: قَذَارَة Armenian: կեղտ Bangi: mbindo Belarusian: бруд Belarusian: гразь Bulgarian: мръсоти́я Chinese Mandarin: 污垢 Chinese Mandarin: 穢物 /秽物 Chinese Mandarin: 污 Catalan: bruticia Czech: špína Danish: snavs Dolgan: кир Dutch: vuil Erzya: рудаз Esperanto: malpuraĵo Finnish: lika Finnish: loka French: saleté French: ordure Georgian: ჭუჭყი German: Schmutz Greek: ακαθαρσία Hungarian: piszok Ingrian: lika Ingrian: riima Italian: sudiciume Japanese: 泥 Japanese: 汚物 Korean: 오물 Kyrgyz: кир Lingala: mbindo Marathi: घाण Macedonian: нечистотија Mongolian: тоос Mongolian: хир Norwegian Bokmål: smuss Iranian Persian: چِرْک Polish: brud Portuguese: sujidade Romagnol: cacaréra Romanian: murdărie Russian: грязь Serbo-Croatian: прља́вштина Serbo-Croatian: нечисто̀ћа Serbo-Croatian: prljávština Serbo-Croatian: nečistòća Slovak: špina Slovene: umazanija Spanish: suciedad Spanish: mugor Spanish: mugre Swedish: smuts
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