dirt
pronunciation
How to pronounce dirt in British English:
UK [dɜːt]
How to pronounce dirt in American English:
US [dɜːrt]
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- Noun:
- the part of the earth's surface consisting of humus and disintegrated rock
- the state of being covered with unclean things
- obscene terms for feces
- disgraceful gossip about the private lives of other people
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- Adjective:
- (of roads) not leveled or drained; unsuitable for all year travel
Word Origin
- dirt
- dirt: [13] Dirt was originally drit, and meant ‘excrement’ (it was borrowed from Old Norse drit, which goes back to a prehistoric Germanic base *drit- that also produced Dutch dreet ‘excrement’). The toned-down sense ‘soiling substance’ is of equal antiquity with ‘excrement’ in English, and the modern English form dirt first appeared in the 15th century, by a process known as metathesis in which two sounds are reversed.
- dirt (n.)
- 15c. metathesis of Middle English drit, drytt "mud, dirt, dung" (c. 1300), from Old Norse drit, cognate with Old English dritan "to void excrement," from Proto-Germanic *dritan (cognates: Dutch drijten, Old High German trizan). Used abusively of persons from c. 1300. Meaning "gossip" first attested 1926 (in Hemingway); dirt bike is 1960s. Dirt-cheap is from 1821. Dirt road attested by 1852.
Example
- 1. He bent down , and wrote in the dirt .
- 2. These included who was eating dirt and under what circumstances .
- 3. Bulldozers work to remove tons of dirt , rocks , and trees .
- 4. Keep dirt out to minimize cleaning and related expenses .
- 5. A hydroponic garden is more expensive than dirt .