dirt meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

dirt

noun

UK /dɜːt/ · US /dɝt/

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.

7 senses

1Soil or earth.
2A stain or spot (on clothes etc); any foreign substance…
3Previously unknown facts or rumors about a person.
4Meanness; sordidness.
5In placer mining, earth, gravel, etc., before washing.
6Freckles.
7Excrement; dung.

US, Usually Soil or earth.

Usually A stain or spot (on clothes etc); any foreign substance that worsens appearance.

Usually Previously unknown facts or rumors about a person.

The reporter uncovered the dirt on the businessman by going undercover.
Perhaps inevitably, as the manipulation of the stars' public images became ever more rigorous, so too did the efforts of gossip columnists such as Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper to uncover dirt and scandal.2011, David Puttnam, Movies and Money, Vintage, →ISBN:

Figuratively, Usually Meanness; sordidness.

honours […] thrown away upon dirt and infamy1810, W. Melmoth, transl., Letters of Pliny:

Business, Mining Usually In placer mining, earth, gravel, etc., before washing.

Usually Freckles.

I'm one of Charlie's Angels too, but I'm the one with the dirty face.1983, Pat Phoenix, Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt, page 158:
a dirty-faced redhead poked a soiled kerchief beneath my nose, and charmlessly wheedled, "Spare coppers, mister, Spare coppers!" This runny-nosed waif, a "knacker" in the Dublin vernacular, was of the traveling breed who had of late given up their painted wagons for the grimy ghettos of the city. The child -God Bless the Mark- had freckles that splotched her face as though God had applied them too hurriedly with a blunt brush.2005, Kevin O'Hara, Last of the Donkey Pilgrims: A Man's Journey Through Ireland, page 244:

1 more example

Whatever you love about your freckles, they make you unique and beautiful. Don't always feel that you need to clean that dirt off your face with that foundation powder or contour layers. You're naturally beautiful as you are!2016, Lindsay Bowman, To The Girls With Dirt On Their Faces:

Archaic, Usually Excrement; dung.

And the haft also went in after the blade: and the fatte closed vpon the blade, so that hee could not drawe the dagger out of his belly, and the dirt came out.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Judges 3:22:

Derived terms: 67 terms
bedirt, common as dirt, dig up dirt, dirt bag, dirtbag, dirtball, dirt bath, 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, drag through the 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, throw dirt on, treat like dirt, washdirt, white dirt, wood dirt

dirt

verb

Etymology

Rare To make foul or filthy; soil; befoul; dirty