dirt

Definition of dirt

9 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

(US, uncountable, usually)Soil or earth.

See all 9 definitions

noun

(US, uncountable, usually)Soil or earth.
(uncountable, usually)A stain or spot (on clothes etc); any foreign substance that worsens appearance.
(uncountable, 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.”
(figuratively, uncountable, usually)Meanness; sordidness.

“honours […] thrown away upon dirt and infamy”
(uncountable, usually)In placer mining, earth, gravel, etc., before washing.
(uncountable, usually)Freckles.

“I'm one of Charlie's Angels too, but I'm the one with the dirty face.”
“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.”
“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!”
(archaic, uncountable, 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.”
(Ireland, abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, uncountable)Acronym of Deposit Interest Retention Tax.

verb

(rare, transitive)To make foul or filthy; soil; befoul; dirty

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

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”),…

See full 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.

Anagrams of dirt

1 play · some not in Scrabble

DRIT 5 pts

Words you can make from dirt

5 playable · top: DIT (4 pts)

Best play dit 4 points

3-letter words

1 word

RID 4 pts

2-letter words

3 words

Hooks

2 extensions · 2 back

A single letter you can add to dirt to make another valid word.