| 释义 |
▪ I. dirt, n.|dɜːt|
Forms: 4–5 drit, dryt, dritt(e, dryte, (4 dryit), 5 drytt, 5–6 dyrt(e, 5–7 durt, 5– dirt.
[By metathesis from ME. drit, not known in OE. and prob. a. ON. drit neuter, excrement (mod. Icel. dritr masc., Norw. dritt); cf. also MDu. drete, Du. dreet, Fl. drits, drets excrement: see drite v.]
1. Ordure; = excrement 2 b.
a1300Cokaygne 179 in E.E.P. (1862) 161 Seue ȝere in swine-is dritte He mot wade. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 295 (Mätz.) Ureyne and dritte. 1388Wyclif Phil. iii. 8 All thingis..Y deme as drit, [1382 toordis] that Y wynne Crist. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. v. (1495) 752 The lambe hath blacke dyrte. c1440Promp. Parv. 132/2 Dryte..doonge, merda, stercus. c1460Towneley Myst. (Surtees) 194 The dwillys durt in thi berd, Vyle fals tratur! 1561Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 13 b, Take whyte dogges dyrte thre unces. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. v. xii. 406 Some count a Jesting lie..like the dirt of oysters, which..never stains. 1830Marryat King's Own xxvi, It's the natur of cats always to make a dirt in the same place.
2. a. Unclean matter, such as soils any object by adhering to it; filth; esp. the wet mud or mire of the ground, consisting of earth and waste matter mingled with water.
a1300Sarmun vii. in E.E.P. (1862) 2 Þi felle wiþ-oute nis bot a sakke ipudrid ful wiþ drit and ding. a1300Ten Commandm. 21 ibid. 16 Þe ful dritte of grunde. 14..Sir Beues 1196 (MS. M.) He..tredith hym vnder his fete In the dirte amyddus the strete. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 151 b, The Swine..delighteth..to wallow in the durt. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. i. 80 How she waded through the durt to plucke him off me. 1611Bible Isa. lvii. 20 The troubled sea..whose waters cast vp myre and dirt. 1661Pepys Diary 29 May, The spoiling of my clothes and velvet coat with dirt. 1669Penn No Cross ii. §10 Poor Mortals! But living Dirt; made of what they tread on. 1684Bunyan Pilgr. ii. 64 The Dirt will sink to the bottom, and the Water come out by itself more clear. 1782Cowper Gilpin 189 Let me scrape the dirt away That hangs upon your face. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xi. 95 Now comes my master..and grinds me down into the very dirt! 1878Huxley Physiogr. 131 The muddy matter in these streams is merely the dirt washed from the roofs of the houses and the stones of the street. Mod. Dirt is only matter in the wrong place.
b. fig. As the type of anything worthless: cf. the phrase filthy lucre.
1357Lay Folks Catech. (Lamb. MS.) 771 Þey sellyn sowlys to satanas for a lytyl worldly dryt. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 68 Bischopis, munkis & chanons sillen..trewe prechynge for a litil stynkyng muk or drit. c1679R. Duke To Dryden on Tr. & Cr. (R.), You found it dirt, but you have made it gold. 1720De Foe Capt. Singleton xix. (1840) 329 The wealth..was all like dirt under my feet. 1734Pope Ess. Man iv. 279 Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life? 1753A. Murphy Gray's-Inn Jrnl. No. 42 ⁋1 Ever since..Convenience stamped an imaginary Value upon yellow Dirt.
c. A scornful name for land (as a possession).
1602Shakes. Ham. v. ii. 90 'Tis a Chowgh; but as I say spacious in the possession of dirt. 1616Beaum. & Fl. Scornful Lady i. ii, Your brother's house is big enough; and to say truth, he has too much land: hang it, dirt!
d. Applied abusively to persons.
c1300Havelok 682 Go hom swithe, fule, drit, cherl. 1658Cleveland Rustick Rampant Wks. (1687) 457 That Dirt of a Captain..had butchered the English Patriarch. 1871C. Gibbon Lack of Gold iv, Are you to turn your back on them like the dirt they are? 1894Hall Caine Manxman II. xi. 88 I hate the nasty dirts.
e. A mean action, remark, etc. U.S., Austral., and N.Z. slang.
1893S. Crane Maggie (1896) iii. 20, I got dis can fer dat ole woman, an' it 'ud be dirt teh swipe it. 1916C. J. Dennis Songs of Sentimental Bloke 34 A bloke 'ud be a dawg to kid a skirt Like 'er. An' me well knowin' she was square. It 'ud be dirt! 1947‘A. P. Gaskell’ Big Game 31 That was dirt, kicking mine [sc. my balloon] over the fence.
f. Scurrilous information or gossip; scandal. Also attrib.
1926Hemingway Sun also Rises ii. 9 ‘Do you know any dirt?’ I asked. ‘No.’ ‘None of your exalted connections getting divorces?’ 1934E. Waugh Handful of Dust ii. 82 Good morning, darling, what's the dirt today? 1958[see angle n.2 1 c]. 1959P. Moyes Dead Men don't Ski iv. 41 ‘Come on, spill the dirt. What were they saying?’..‘I always thought you didn't listen to gossip.’ 1964Wodehouse Frozen Assets v. 87 He doesn't think much of you... He thinks you fall short in the way of dishing the dirt.
3. a. Mud; soil, earth, mould; brick-earth. colloq.
1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 26 A Fort or Blockade (if it merit to be called so) made of Dirt. 1709Steele Tatler No. 49 ⁋10 As Infants ride on Sticks, build Houses in Dirt. 1795Windham Sp. Parl. 27 May (1812) I. 270 Children, who had surrounded a twig with a quantity of dirt, would think that they had planted a tree. 1823P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 344 Place Bricks, being made of clay, with a mixture of dirt and other coarse materials..are..weaker and more brittle. 1841Catlin N. Amer. Ind. (1844) I. x. 77 Throwing up the dirt from each excavation in a little pile. 1889Farmer Dict. Amer. 202/2 The gardener fills his flower-pots with dirt.
b. Mining, quarrying, etc. Useless material, rubbish; the vegetable soil comprising a dirt-bed.
1799Kirwan Geol. Ess. 308, 3 feet of coal, under which is a bad sort, called dirt, and again, 2 feet of coal. 1881J. W. Urquhart Electro-typing v. 130 The common qualities [of copper] give off a great deal of foreign matter known as ‘dirt’. 1884Chesh. Gloss., Dirts, salt-making term. Cinders and ashes left after fuel is consumed. 1885Lyell's Elem. Geol. 290 A stratum called by quarrymen ‘the dirt’, or ‘black dirt’, was evidently an ancient vegetable soil.
c. The material from which a metallic ore or other valuable substance is separated; esp. the alluvial deposit from which gold is separated by washing; = washdirt.
1857Borthwick California 120 (Bartlett), In California, ‘dirt’ is the universal word to signify the substance dug; earth, clay, gravel, or loose slate. The miners talk of rich dirt and poor dirt, and of stripping off so many feet of ‘top dirt’ before getting to ‘pay-dirt’, the latter meaning dirt with so much gold in it that it will pay to dig it up and wash it. 1890Boldrewood Miner's Right xiv. 142 We were clean worked out..before many of our neighbours at Greenstone Gully were half done with their dirt.
4. a. The quality or state of being dirty or foul; dirtiness, foulness, uncleanness in action or speech.
1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 328 The sloth and dirt of the inhabitants. 1789Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France I. 144 Literature and dirt had long been intimately acquainted. 1857C. G. Gordon Lett. III. 141 The Turkish steamer..was in a beastly state of dirt. 1872E. Peacock Mabel Heron I. ii. 16 The dirt, darkness, and savagery of the town.
b. Meanness, sordidness.
1625Fletcher Noble Gent. iii. 1, Our dunghill breeding and our durt. 1746W. Melmoth Pliny vii. xxix (R.), Honours, which are thus sometimes thrown away upon dirt and infamy; which such a rascal..had the assurance both to accept and to refuse.
5. a. dial. ‘Dirty’ weather.
1836Marryat Three Cutt. iii, Shall we have dirt? 1870Whitby Gloss., Dirt, a weather term for rain or snow. ‘We're likely to have some dirt.’
b. Mining. Inflammable gas which constitutes ‘foulness’ in a mine; = fire-damp.
1831Examiner 765/1 We examined if there was any dirt (inflammable air). 1851Greenwell Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh. 23. 1892 Northumbld. Gloss., Dirt..is also used to express foul-air or firedamp in a pit.
6. Phrases.
†a. to fall to dirt: to fall to the ground, to come to nothing; so to be all in the dirt, to lay all in the dirt, and the like. Obs.
1546St. Papers Hen. VIII, XI. 181 To the which we will in no wise agree, but wil rather laye all in the durt. 1657North's Plutarch, Add. Lives (1676) 28 Here Saladin was handsomely beat to dirt. 1658Bramhall Consecr. Bps. vi. 148 Mr. Mason squeesed the poore Fable to durt. 1667Pepys Diary 19 Feb., Our discourse of peace is all in the dirt. 1670Marvell Corr. cxli. Wks. 1872–5 II. 315 We heard them ‘pro formâ’, but all falls to dirt.
b. to cast, throw, or fling dirt: to asperse any one with scurrilous or abusive language.
1642Sir E. Dering Sp. on Relig. 1 Cast what dirt thou wilt, none will sticke on me. c1645Howell Lett. (1650) II. 62 Any sterquilinious raskall is licenc'd to throw dirt in the faces of soveraign princes in open printed language. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. vii. 19 The best of men..are more carefull to wash their own faces, then busie to throw durt on others. 1678B. R. Letter Pop. Friends 7 'Tis a blessed Line in Matchiavel—If durt enough be thrown, some will stick. 1706E. Ward Hud. Rediv. I. ii. 11 Fling dirt enough, and some will stick. 1738Pope Epil. Sat. ii. 145 To me they meant no hurt, But 'twas my Guest at whom they threw the dirt.
c. to eat dirt: to submit to degrading treatment; also (U.S.) humiliating confession or retractation. Proverb. ‘Every man must eat a peck of dirt before he dies’: see peck.
1857Kingsley Two Y. Ago II. v. 200 You have wonderfully changed your tone. Who was to eat any amount of dirt, if he could but save his influence thereby? 1859Farrar J. Home ix, Lord Fitzurse..made up for the dirt which they had been eating by the splendour of his entertainment. 1885Mag. Amer. Hist. Feb. 199/2 ‘To eat dirt’ is to retract or ‘eat humble pie’. 1890Sat. Rev. 18 Oct. 462/2 In times of revolution a good many pecks of dirt have to be eaten. 1891Farmer Slang s.v. Dirt, To eat dirt,..to retract. 1903S. Clapin Dict. Amer., Eat dirt, to retract, to be penitent, the Yankee equiv. of ‘to eat one's words.’.
d. to cut dirt: to take one's departure, be off. U.S. slang.
1829Negro Song (Farmer s.v. Cut), He cut dirt and run. 1843–5Haliburton Sam Slick in Eng. (Bartlett), The way the cow cut dirt. 1853Western Scenes (Farmer), Now you cut dirt, and don't let me see you here again.
e. to do dirt (to), to harm or injure maliciously. (Cf. dirty a. 2 d.) slang (orig. U.S.).
1893S. Crane Maggie (1896) xiv. 111 Yer doin' me dirt, Nell! I never taut ye'd do me dirt. 1893M. A. Owen Voodoo Tales 274 Ef I tek ter doin' dirt, den Ise willin' ter be jacky-me-lantuhn—an' sarve me right, too! 1913E. C. Bentley Trent's Last Case vi. 137 They have been known to dynamite a man..who had done them dirt. 1926J. Black You can't Win v. 57 You are the only human being I've met..that hasn't tried to do me some kind of dirt. 1929D. H. Lawrence Sex, Lit. & Censorship (1955) 203 The so-called ‘humour’ is just a trick of doing dirt on sex. 1951N. Balchin Way through Wood iv. 63 She doesn't do you dirt with characters like Bule—not serious dirt. 1951J. C. Fennessy Sonnet in Bottle vii. i. 245 It was doing dirt to one of their own people. 1956E. Pound tr. Sophocles' Women of Trachis 22, I'm telling you: do dirt to others but..Don't weasel to me. 1959‘W. Haggard’ Venetian Blind vi. 84 Dotties could do you dirt; they could remark..in public, that..you were living with the curate.
7. attrib. and Comb.
a. attrib., ‘of or for dirt’, as dirt-band, dirt-box, dirt-car, dirt-cart, dirt-cone, dirt-floor, dirt-heap, dirt-pellet, dirt-roof (also dirt-roofed adj.) U.S., dirt-spot, dirt-streak, etc.
1860Tyndall Glac. i. xi. 68, I could see..the looped *dirt-bands of the glacier. 1889G. F. Wright Ice Age N. Amer. 19 Neither moulins nor regular dirt-bands are present.
1884Health Exhib. Catal. 55/2 Man-hole Cover for sewers, with elm blocks and fixed *Dirt Boxes.
1870Emerson Soc. & Solit. vi. 120 The railroad *dirt-cars are good excavators.
1860Bartlett Dict. Amer. 122 The ‘*dirt-cart’, or cart which removes street sweepings, would, in London, be called a ‘dust-cart’.
1860Tyndall Glac. i. ii. 18 Here are also ‘*dirt-cones’ of the largest size.
1858P. Cartwright Autobiog. xxx. 471 We walked on *dirt floors for carpets, sat on benches for chairs.
1862Bunyan Holy War Advt. to Rdr., John such *dirt-heap never was.
1709Swift T. Tub Apol., Do they think such a building is to be battered with *dirt-pellets?
1881Rep. Indian Affairs (U.S.) 121 Carpenter shop,..log, *dirt roof. 1910Outlook 2 July 483 A log cabin of two rooms, with a dirt roof.
1873J. H. Beadle Undevel. West xxxiv. 734 To his joy he came upon a *dirt-roofed log-house.
1856Kane Arct. Expl. II. xi. 113 Coming nearer, you see that the *dirt-spots are perforations of the snow. 1864Lowell Fireside Trav. 47 Cleanness, incapable of moral dirt spot.
1860Tyndall Glac. ii. viii. 267 The only trace of the moraines is a broad *dirt-streak.
b. instrumental, as dirt-besmeared, dirt-born, dirt-grimed, dirt-incrusted, dirt-rotten, dirt-smirched, dirt-soaked adjs.
1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. i. 23 Dirt-rotten livers, wheezing lungs. 1754J. Shebbeare Matrimony (1766) I. 70 It is the Devil to have to do with such dirt-born Fellows. 1838Dickens O. Twist l. Dirt-besmeared walls. 1886J. K. Jerome Idle Thoughts (1889) 74 Little dirt-grimed brats, trying to play in the noisy courts.
c. objective, as dirt-eater, -eating, dirt-flinging, dirt-loving, dirt-thrower; (sense 3 c) dirt-washer, dirt-washing.
1819Metropolis II. 133 The very last of dirt-throwers thereof [of the Canongate]. 1824Westm. Rev. II. 467 This is done by assumption and dirt-flinging. Ibid., Le Clerc divides the..Dirt-flinging argument into sixteen species. 1869S. Bowles Our New West ix. 179 The dirt-washers swept eagerly over the rich surface deposits. Ibid., The old and simple dirt washing for gold was resumed.
d. Special combs.: dirt bike, a type of motorcycle designed for riding on unmade roads or tracks, esp. in motorcycle scrambling; cf. trail bike s.v. trail n.1 17; hence dirtbiker; dirt-board (see quot.); dirt farmer U.S., a practical farmer; one who farms his own land; so dirt-farming; dirt-fast a., stuck fast in the dirt; dirt-fear, -ed a., dirt-gabard (see quots.); dirt-line, a layer of dirt and debris accumulated on the surface of a glacier and imprisoned by the seasonal layer of snow; dirt money = dirty money (see dirty a. 6 b); dirt-poor a. (orig. U.S.), extremely poor; dirt road (chiefly N. Amer.), an unmade road, having merely the natural surface; dirt-roller, a roller in a cotton-spinning machine for removing dirt; dirt-scraper, a road-scraper; also a grading-shovel used in grading or levelling up ground; dirt track, an unpaved track or course; spec. (a) made of cinders and brick-dust for motor-cycle racing; (b) composed of soil, esp. as distinguished from turf, for flat-racing; dirt-weed (see quots.). Also dirt-bed, -cheap, etc.
1970Pop. Mechanics Oct. 138 The *dirt-bike boom has bred all-new machines designed just for running in the rough. 1975New Yorker 17 Feb. 16/3 He can do headers, glass packs, fuel injectors, funny cars, dirt bikes and snowmobiles. 1986P. Theroux O-Zone xli. 464 His dirt bike was beautiful, with chrome brush guards.
1983Out of Town Dec. 40/2 Last year's show attracted more than 12,000 enthusiasts, almost half the number of active *dirtbikers in the country... There's plenty to tempt you for the beginning of the new dirtbike season at Easter.
1924H. Croy R.F.D. No. 3 148, A real *dirt farmer, not..one of them city dudes. 1932E. Wilson Devil take Hindmost xvi. 170 He himself has been a dirt farmer, not a white⁓collar farmer! 1955Sci. News Let. 23 July 50/2 It appears that all visiting experts are high officials in Russian agriculture, not one being a ‘dirt farmer’.
1874Knight Dict. Mech., *Dirt-board [in carriage], a board for warding off earth from the axle-arm. A cutto⁓plate.
1920Boston Even. Transcript 2 Oct. iv. 1/1 Doing its multiple duty of making *dirt-farming a fine art.
1508Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 33 *Dirtfast dearch.
1767W. Meston Poems 131 (Jam.) He trembl'd, and, which was a token Of a *dirt-fear, look'd dun as docken.
1722W. Hamilton Wallace x. 250 (Jam.) The Bishop of St. Andrews..Who would not Wallace' coming there abide, Was so *dirt-fear'd, even for all Scotland wide.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Dirt-gabard, a large ballast-lighter.
1894J. Geikie Gt. Ice Age (ed. 3) 30 The beds of snow..being usually marked off by a ‘*dirt-line’ or crust formed of a mixture of dust, small grit, and occasional remains of insects.
1949‘M. Innes’ Journeying Boy x. 119 *Dirt money..the extra pay dockers and people get for doing something thoroughly nasty.
1937Time 26 Apr. 41/1 Nearly blind and *dirt-poor, Inventor Dave Mallory (Karloff) devises a burglar alarm worked by electric eyes. 1971D. O'Connor Eye of Eagle xix. 128 They were dirt-poor; they could not bribe people.
1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. vii. 62 Der's two roads to de river—de *dirt road and de pike. 1931G. T. Clark Leland Stanford iv. 85 Traveling by horse-drawn stage..over rough and dusty dirt roads. 1959A. Fullerton Yellow Ford v. 40, I heard the noise of the car and a moment later saw it come bumping up the dirt road. 1959N. Lofts Heaven in your Hand 109 The dirt road became a cobbled street. 1969E. W. Morse Fur Trade Canoe Routes ii. v. 58 This little channel, still evident, leads from Bell Lake to the present dirt road.
1902Encycl. Brit. XXIX. 335/2 Practically all flat racing in the United States is held on ‘*dirt-tracks’, i.e., courses with soil specially prepared for racing, instead of turf courses. 1924Masefield Sard Harker i. 63 The road was not macadam but dirt-track, with soft going, after the first mile. 1928Daily Tel. 20 Mar. 14/2 Motor-cycle racing on ‘dirt tracks’, a form of sport very popular in Australia. 1928Times 2 July 6/7 Dirt Track Racing. 1949Koestler Promise & Fulfilment xv. 168 A tiny two-seater training plane..which performed perilous hops from an improvised dirt-track runway in Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and back. 1961W. Vaughan-Thomas Anzio viii. 162 One column struck south-east down the dirt track that led towards the Spaccasassi Creek.
a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, *Dirt-weed, Chenopodium viride, an expressive name for what generally grows on dunghills or other heaps of dirt. 1884Miller Plant-n. 38/2 Dirt-weed, or Dirty Dick, Chenopodium album.
▸ dirt bag n. orig. U.S. (a) a bag filled or designed to be filled with dirt or refuse; (b) slang (derogatory) a dirty, unkempt, or contemptible person.
1897Davenport (Iowa) Daily Republican 20 Mar. 1/7 Hundreds of section hands are striving to keep the water back with *dirt bags. 1934Sheboygan (Wisconsin) Press 21 Apr. 4/7 (advt.) Hoover Specials are..equipped with new cords, belts, furniture guards and dirt bags. 1977B. Davidson Collura iv. 41, I looked like such a dirt bag and everyone else was all dressed up. 1992More 28 Oct. 98/1 If he's such a dirtbag, Betty's bound to find out on her own before long.
▪ II. dirt, v.
Also 6–7 durt.
[f. dirt n. See also the earlier strong vb. drite.]
trans. To make dirty or foul; to defile or pollute with dirt; to dirty, to soil.
a1587Foxe A. & M. (1596) 1581 Riding in his long gowne downe to the horse heels..dirted vp to the horse bellie. 1611Barry Ram-Alley i. ii, How light he treads For dirting his silk stockings! 1660Fuller Mixt Contempl. (1663) 89 For fear to dirt the soles of their shoes. 1727Th. Var. Subjects in Swift's Wks. 1755 II. i. 226 Ill company is like a dog, who dirts those most whom he loves best. 1826Lamb Lett. (1888) II. 149 Don't thumb and dirt the books. 1833J. H. Newman Lett. (1891) I. 386 Sitting down on the ashes..which are so dry as not to dirt.
Hence ˈdirting vbl. n.
1591Percivall Sp. Dict., Enlodadura, durting, fouling with durt, lutamentum. |