a1300 Sarmun vii, in Early Eng. Poems & Lives Saints (1862) 2 Þi felle wiþ-oute nis bot a sakke ipudrid ful wiþ drit and ding.

a1300 Ten Commandm. 21 in Early Eng. Poems & Lives Saints (1862) 16 Þe ful dritte of grunde.

14.. Sir Beues 1196 (MS. M.) He..tredith hym vnder his fete In the dirte amyddus the strete.

1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry iii. f. 151^v The Swyne..delighteth..to wallowe in the durt.

1611 Bible (King James) Isa. lvii. 20 The troubled sea..whose waters cast vp myre and dirt . View more context for this quotation

a1616 W. Shakespeare Taming of Shrew (1623) iv. i. 69 How she waded through the durt to plucke him off me. View more context for this quotation

1661 S. Pepys Diary 29 May (1970) II. 110 The spoiling of my clothes and velvet coate with dirt.

1669 W. Penn No Cross, No Crown ii. §10 Poor Mortals! But living Dirt; made of what they tread on.

1684 J. Bunyan Pilgrim's Progress 2nd Pt. ii. 64 The Dirt will sink to the bottom, and the Water come out by itself more clear. View more context for this quotation

1782 W. Cowper John Gilpin 189 Let me scrape the dirt away That hangs upon your face.

1852 H. B. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin I. xi. 166 Now comes my master..and grinds me down into the very dirt!

1878 T. H. Huxley Physiography (ed. 2) 131 The muddy matter in these streams is merely the dirt washed from the roofs of the houses and the stones of the street.

1896 N.E.D. at Dirt Mod. Dirt is only matter in the wrong place.

1357 Lay Folks Catech. (Lamb. MS.) 771 Þey sellyn sowlys to satanas for a lytyl worldly dryt.

c1380 J. Wyclif Wks. (1880) 68 Bischopis, munkis & chanons sillen..trewe prechynge for a litil stynkyng muk or drit.

a1711 R. Duke To Dryden on Troilus & Cressida in Poems (1717) 422 You found it dirt but you have made it gold.

1720 D. Defoe Life Capt. Singleton 328 The Wealth..was all like Dirt under my Feet.

1734 A. Pope Ess. Man: Epist. IV 269 Is yellow Dirt the passion of thy life?

1753 A. Murphy Gray's Inn Jrnl. No. 42 Ever since..Convenience stamped an imaginary Value upon yellow Dirt.

1604 W. Shakespeare Hamlet v. ii. 90 Tis a chough, but as I say, spacious in the possession of durt . View more context for this quotation

1616 F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Scornful Ladie i. sig. C3 Your Brothers house is big enough, and to say truth, ha's too much Land, hang it durt.

c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) 682 Go hom swithe, fule, drit, cherl.

a1658 J. Cleveland Rustick Rampant in Wks. (1687) 457 That Dirt of a Captain..had butchered the English Patriarch.

1871 C. Gibbon For Lack of Gold I. iv. 71 Are you to turn your back on them like the dirt they are?

1894 H. Caine Manxman xi. 88 I hate the nasty dirts.

1893 S. Crane Maggie iii. 24 I got dis can fer dat ol' woman an' it 'ud be dirt teh swipe it.

1916 C. J. Dennis Songs Sentimental Bloke (new ed.) 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.

1926 E. Hemingway Sun also Rises ii. 9 ‘Do you know any dirt?’ I asked. ‘No.’ ‘None of your exalted connections getting divorces?’

1934 E. Waugh Handful of Dust ii. 82 Good morning, darling, what's the dirt today?

1958 S. Ellin Eighth Circle (1959) ii. ix. 103 His angle was to sell off tapes and pictures to the dirt magazines.

1959 P. 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.’

1964 P. G. Wodehouse Frozen Assets v. 87 He doesn't think much of you... He thinks you fall short in the way of dishing the dirt.

1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 26 A Fort or Blockade (if it merit to be called so) made of Dirt.

1709 R. Steele Tatler No. 49. ⁋10 As Infants ride on Sticks, build Houses in Dirt.

1795 W. Windham Speeches 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.

1823 P. Nicholson New Pract. Builder 344 Place Bricks, being made of clay, with a mixture of dirt and other coarse materials..are..weaker and more brittle.

1841 G. Catlin Lett. N. Amer. Indians I. x. 77 Throwing up the dirt from the excavation, in a little pile.

1889 J. S. Farmer Americanisms The gardener fills his flower-pots with dirt.

1799 R. Kirwan Geol. Ess. 308 3 feet of coal, under which is a bad sort, called dirt, and again, 2 feet of coal.

1881 J. W. Urquhart Electro-typing v. 130 The common qualities [of copper] give off a great deal of foreign matter known as ‘dirt’.

1884 R. Holland Gloss. Words County of Chester (1886) Dirts, salt-making term. Cinders and ashes left after fuel is consumed.

1885 Lyell's Elem. Geol. 290 A stratum called by quarrymen ‘the dirt’, or ‘black dirt’, was evidently an ancient vegetable soil.

1857 J. D. Borthwick Three Years in Calif. 120 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.

1873 J. H. Beadle Undeveloped West ix. 163 In places [we] pass hundreds of acres of ‘old dirt’, which has been washed out and abandoned.

1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Miner's Right II. xiv. 36 We were clean worked out..before many of our neighbours at Greenstone Gully were half done with their ‘dirt’.

1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth I. 328 The sloth and dirt of the inhabitants.

1789 H. L. Piozzi Observ. Journey France I. 144 Literature and dirt had long been intimately acquainted.

1857 C. G. Gordon Lett. III. 141 The Turkish steamer..was in a beastly state of dirt.

1872 E. Peacock Mabel Heron I. ii. 16 The dirt, darkness, and savagery of the town.

a1625 J. Fletcher Noble Gentleman iii. i, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Ee2/1 Our dung-hill breeding and our durt.

1746 W. Melmoth tr. Pliny Lett. 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.

1836 F. Marryat Three Cutters iii Shall we have dirt?

1870 Whitby Gloss. Dirt, a weather term for rain or snow. ‘We're likely to have some dirt.’

1831 Examiner 765/1 We examined if there was any dirt (inflammable air).

1849 G. C. Greenwell Gloss. Terms Coal Trade Northumberland & Durham 23 Dirt, a term used to express foulness or fire-damp.

1892 R. O. Heslop Northumberland Words Dirt..is also used to express foul-air or firedamp in a pit.

1546 in State Papers Henry VIII (1852) XI. 181 To the which we will in no wise agree, but wil rather laye all in the durt.

1657 tr. A. Thevet Prosopographia 29 in T. North tr. Plutarch Lives (new ed.) Here Saladin was handsomely beat to dirt.

1658 J. Bramhall Consecration Protestant Bishops Justified vii. 148 Mr. Mason squeesed the poore Fable to durt.

1667 S. Pepys Diary 19 Feb. (1974) VIII. 72 Our discourse of peace is all in the dirt.

1670 A. Marvell Let. 21 Mar. in Poems & Lett. (1971) II. 314 We heard them pro Formâ, but all falls to Dirt.

1642 E. Dering Coll. Speeches on Relig. 1 Cast what dirt thou wilt, none will sticke on me.

1647 J. Howell New Vol. of Lett. 120 Any sterquilinious raskall, is licenc'd to throw dirt in the faces of Soveraigne Princes in open printed language.

1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. ix. 193 The best of men..are more carefull to wash their own faces, then busie to throw durt on others.

1678 B. R. Let. Popish Friends 7 'Tis a blessed Line in Matchiavel—If durt enough be thrown, some will stick.

1705 E. Ward Hudibras Redivivus I. ii. 11 Fling Dirt enough, and some will stick.

1738 A. Pope One Thousand Seven Hundred & Thirty Eight Dialogue II 10 To me they meant no hurt, But 'twas my Guest at whom they threw the dirt.

1857 C. Kingsley Two Years 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?

1859 F. W. Farrar Julian Home ix. 116 Lord Fitzurse..made up for the dirt which they had been eating by the splendour of his entertainment.

1885 Mag. Amer. Hist. 13 199/2 ‘To eat dirt’ is to retract or ‘eat humble pie’.

1890 Sat. Rev. 18 Oct. 462/2 In times of revolution a good many pecks of dirt have to be eaten.

1891 J. S. Farmer Slang To eat dirt,..to retract.

1903 S. Clapin New Dict. Amer. Eat dirt, to retract, to be penitent, the Yankee equiv. of ‘to eat one's words.’.

1829 Negro Song (Farmer) at Cut He cut dirt and run.

1843–5 T. C. Haliburton Attaché The way the cow cut dirt.

1853 Western Scenes (Farmer) Now you cut dirt, and don't let me see you here again.

1893 S. Crane Maggie xiv. 122 Yer doin' me dirt, Nell! I never taut ye'd do me dirt.

1893 M. A. Owen Voodoo Tales 274 Ef I tek ter doin' dirt, den Ise willin' ter be jacky-me-lantuhn—an' sarve me right, too!

1913 E. C. Bentley Trent's Last Case vi. 137 They have been known to dynamite a man..who had done them dirt.

1926 J. 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.

1929 D. H. Lawrence Sex, Lit. & Censorship (1955) 203 The so-called ‘humour’ is just a trick of doing dirt on sex.

1951 N. Balchin Way through Wood iv. 63 She doesn't do you dirt with characters like Bule—not serious dirt.

1951 J. C. Fennessy Sonnet in Bottle vii. i. 245 It was doing dirt to one of their own people.

1956 E. 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.