Dirt

//dɜːt// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Soil or earth. US, uncountable, usually
  2. 2
    Acronym of Deposit Interest Retention Tax. Ireland, abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, uncountable
  3. 3
    disgraceful gossip about the private lives of other people wordnet
  4. 4
    A stain or spot (on clothes etc); any foreign substance that worsens appearance. uncountable, usually
  5. 5
    anything regarded as making something unclean wordnet
Show 7 more definitions
  1. 6
    Previously unknown facts or rumors about a person. uncountable, usually

    "The reporter uncovered the dirt on the businessman by going undercover."

  2. 7
    the part of the earth's surface consisting of humus and disintegrated rock wordnet
  3. 8
    Meanness; sordidness. figuratively, uncountable, usually

    "honours […] thrown away upon dirt and infamy"

  4. 9
    obscene terms for feces wordnet
  5. 10
    In placer mining, earth, gravel, etc., before washing. uncountable, usually
  6. 11
    Freckles. uncountable, usually

    "I'm one of Charlie's Angels too, but I'm the one with the dirty face."

  7. 12
    Excrement; dung. archaic, uncountable, usually

    "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."

Verb
  1. 1
    To make foul or filthy; soil; befoul; dirty rare, transitive
Adjective
  1. 1
    (of roads) not leveled or drained; unsuitable for all year travel wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
soilfilthfilthscandalacresalluvion

Example

More examples

"If you take your shoes off before coming into the house you won't bring in any dirt from your shoes."

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 Norwegian dritt (“excrement”), dialectal Swedish dret (“shit”), Icelandic drit (“bird excrement”), Dutch drijten (“to defecate”), drits (“dirt, mud, filth”) and drijt, dreet (“excrement”), Low German drieten (“to defecate”), Driet (“shit”), regional German Driss (“shit”), Old English ġedrītan (“to defecate”).

Related phrases

common as dirtdig up dirtdirt bagdirt beddirt bikedirt cakedirt cheapdirt chutedirt dauberdirt devildirt farmerdirt farming

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.