dunghilln.adj.

Brit.

/ˈdʌŋhɪl/, U.S.

/ˈdəŋˌhɪl/

Forms: see dung n.¹ and hill n.; also Middle English dingel, Middle English dongel, Middle English dunggill, 1500s dungle; English regional 1800s dunggul (Oxfordshire), 1900s– dunggel (Hertfordshire), 1900s– dung'll (Hertfordshire); U.S. regional (Virginia) 1800s dungil; Irish English (northern) 1900s– dochal, 1900s– duchal, 1900s– duckle, 1900s– duhal, 1900s– duncle, 1900s– dunghal, 1900s– dunkil, 1900s– dunkle.

Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: dung n.¹, hill n.

Etymology: < dung n.¹ + hill n. Compare dung heap n. and muckhill n.Some of the Irish English forms (especially in sense A. 4b) may show the influence of forms of Irish English (and Scots) dochle mild-natured, easy-going person, foolish or stupid person (19th cent.). Attested earlier as a field name: Dungehulle, Warwickshire (1235).

A. n.

1. A heap or accumulation of dung; esp. a pile in a farmyard into which animal dung, soiled straw, etc., is gathered to be stored and typically rotted down to be used as manure. Also more generally: a refuse heap; a domestic ash heap; a midden. Now chiefly historical.

ΘΚΠ

the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > dirtiness > dirty place > [noun] > dunghill

mixenOE

dung heap?a1300

miskinc1300

muckhilla1325

dunghillc1330

muck-heapa1400

middena1425

modyngstretea1500

dung mixenc1500

laystowa1513

mixhill1552

muck midden1552

laystall1553

middenstead1583

layheap1624

dung pile1658

midden lair1692

thurrock1708

stercorary1759

midden stance1844

c1330 Seven Sages (Auch.) (1933) l. 2283 Go delue anon in þi donghel, Þou sschalt hit [sc. a gold hord] finde swiþe snel.

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xviii. xxvii. 1171 Þey [sc. houndes in elde] slepeþ a day vpon donge hilles.

1422 in R. W. Chambers & M. Daunt Bk. London Eng. (1931) 129 Þer is a donghill..kasting out in-to þis land ordour of Prevees and other orrible siȝtis.

1484 W. Caxton tr. Subtyl Historyes & Fables Esope (1967) i. i. 74 A Cok ones sought his pasture in the donghylle.

1525 R. Whitford tr. Hugh of St. Victor Expos. vii, in tr. St. Augustine Rule f. lxxxiij A person axed a good housbonde,..what wolde make a fatte muckhepe, or a good dunghyll.

a1550 (c1477) T. Norton Ordinal of Alchemy (Bodl. e Mus.) l. 1998 (MED) Dongehilles in somer stynke more then in winter season.

a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Oxf. 331 The body of the wife of Peter Martyr..had been disgracefully buried in a dunghill.

1697 T. P. Blount Ess. 29 Raking of Dunghills is an Employment more fit for a Scavenger than a Gentleman.

1707 tr. P. Le Lorrain de Vallemont Curiosities in Husbandry & Gardening 266 A Dunghill..is of wondrous Efficacy to forward the Flowers.

1745 tr. L. J. M. Columella Of Husbandry ii. xv In the summer months the whole dunghil must be thoroughly mixed and shuffled with spades.

1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. ii. iii. 424 One-half, perhaps, [of provisions] is thrown to the dunghill .

1804 Rep. Soc. for bettering Condition of Poor IV. App. xxiv. 140 By this means poor people never need to carry their ashes to the dunghill.

1856 H. Stephens Catchism Pract. Agric. 19 The manure from the byres and stables is wheeled daily and spread upon the dunghills.

1894 Fishing Gaz. 28 Apr. 410/2 There were fish bones and guts strewed over the midden, or kitchen dunghill.

1923 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 30 June 1101/2 The streets..were rendered still more incommodious by the habit of keeping small dunghills before the house doors.

1979 F. Davies tr. A. France Gods will have Blood x. 119 Beyond the barn were the cow sheds, in front of which a dunghill rose in mountainous grandeur.

2002 K. Olsen All Things Shakespeare I. 388 In the country..human waste was added to the dunghill..or compost pile, to which stable dung and scraps too humble for even pigs were also added.

2. figurative.

a. A collection or repository of worthless, foul, or contemptible things. Often (esp. in early use) applied to the temporal world, the human body, etc., as corrupt, depraved, or subject to change, decay, etc.

ΚΠ

1340 Ayenbite (1866) 81 (MED) Non uayr body ne is bote..ase a donghel besnewed.

a1450 (c1400) in D. M. Grisdale 3 Middle Eng. Serm. (1939) 58 (MED) Let vs..lift vr sowle fro þe stynkynge dingel o lustes o þis world.

a1475 (?a1430) J. Lydgate tr. G. Deguileville Pilgrimage Life Man (Vitell.) l. 9714 (MED) Yiff thow dyst hem nat supporte..Thy body wer nat euerydel But a verray foul dongel.

1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. EEEi The fowle and fylthy donghyll of this worlde.

1540 R. Morison tr. J. L. Vives Introd. Wysedome (new ed.) C ij The fayrest body is nothing els but a doungehyll covered in white and purple.

1559 W. Baldwin et al. Myrroure for Magistrates Salisbury ix And buryed in the dounghil of defame.

1617 T. Middleton & W. Rowley Faire Quarrell ii. sig. D^v More to be loathde then vilenes; or sins dunghill.

1692 J. Washington tr. J. Milton Def. People Eng. v. 119 For matter of Books, there is no body publishes huger Dunghils than you.

1864 Last Vials May 14 Human government has made the world a dunghill of corruption.

1968 Luso-Brazilian Rev. 5 75 The City is no longer described as the epitome of Civilization—but rather as the dunghill of mankind.

2009 Furrow 60 494 Time, that most just of judges, has levelled both the summits of achievement and the dunghills of failure, wearing them down to their essential fragility and insignificance.

b. A person likened to a dunghill in being filthy or disgusting in some way, esp. (in early use) in being morally corrupt or (now usually) in being very dirty or scruffy. Often with modifying word, as human, moving, walking.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > evil person > [noun]

fiendc1220

shrewc1250

quedea1275

felon1340

malfeasorc1380

evil-doer1398

forfeiter1413

pucka1450

malefactor?c1450

wicked-doerc1450

improbe1484

wicked1484

Gomorrheana1529

dunghill1542

felonian1594

naughta1639

black sheep1640

pimp1649

hellicat1816

malfeasant1867

a bad sortc1869

bad seed1954

bloody1960

society > morality > moral evil > evil nature or character > [noun] > person of bad character

argha1275

noughty packc1520

dunghill1542

land-rat1600

black sheep1640

cacodemon1711

mauvais sujet1793

bad lot1835

badmash1843

rotter1879

wrong 'un1892

wrongo1937

1542 N. Udall tr. Erasmus Apophthegmes i. f. 81 Diogenes dryuyng theim awaye w^t a staf, saied: I bade menne to approche, and not dounge hylles or draffesackes [L. homines, inquit, adesse iussi, non sterquilinia].

c1560 T. Becon Relikes of Rome sig. J.iii^v Shal the vile donghylles of the earth presume to alter the blessed and euerlasting testament of the only begotten Sonne of God?

1665 J. Spencer Disc. Vulgar Prophecies 49 Paracelsus..was a walking Dunghil (so offensive and corrupt his life).

1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue (at cited word) Moving dunghill, a dirty filthy man or woman.

1797 A. M. Bennett Beggar Girl I. iii. 68 To wash and clean the dirtiest little beggar that ever crept on a dunghill, who was indeed herself a moving dunghill, was certainly a disagreeable job.

1832 C. Colton Lacon (rev. ed.) I. 7 Mrs. Montague retorted upon Voltaire, that if Shakspeare was a dunghill, he had enriched a very ungrateful soil.

1860 Fraser's Mag. Mar. 335/1 I looked in the blockhead's face, and inwardly said, Oh you human dunghill!

1963 E. H. Ramsden tr. Michelangelo Lett. I. xc. 85 Besides all the other worries I have, I've now got this dunghill of a boy.

1996 A. Garner Strandloper (1997) xiii. 92 ‘Who, you, you moving dunghill?’ says I. ‘You piss more than you drink!’

†3.

a. With the. The ordinary domestic or farmyard dunghill used metonymically as an emblem of low social status or rank, poverty, or deprivation. Obsolete.Originally in, and frequently with allusion to, biblical use in 1 Samuel 2:18 (see quot. 1537).

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > social class > the common people > low rank or condition > [noun]

lowness?c1225

unnobleyc1384

noughtc1400

ignoblenessc1450

innoblessea1470

deuce-ace1481

ignobility1483

dunghill1537

vilityc1550

baseness1552

humility1623

non-class1973

1537 Bible (Matthew's) 1 Sam. ii. 8 He reyseth vp the poore out of the dust, and lyfteth vp the begger from the dong hill: to sett them among princes.

1546 G. Joye Refut. Byshop Winchesters Derke Declar. f.cxxxi A prince..which hath promoted you out of the donghill to sit felowlike with lordes and dukes.

1569 S. Batman Christall Glasse Christian Reform. sig. C.j The yeomandry or francklin..seeketh by the recouery of spirituall promotion from the dunghill to be a gentleman.

1641 Country-mans Care 4 You may see Coblers and Tinkers rising from the very Dunghill, beating the Pulpits as conformably, as if they were the Kings professors of Divinity.

1688 P. Rycaut tr. G. de la Vega Royal Comm. Peru v. xxxvi. 833 He had raised..him..from a mean and poor to a rich and high condition, and advanced him from the dunghill to a considerable degree.

1787 S. Trimmer Œconomy of Charity 46 Poor children have a greater regard to their behaviour when they are lifted from the dunghill, decently clothed, and noticed by their superiors.

1817 Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 11 Jan. 40 Those who have risen suddenly from the dunghill to a chariot.

1868 R. H. Davis Dallas Galbraith v. 93/2 This fellow—whom he had taken from the dunghill, and to whom family and rank and an estate like a principality came and waited.

1921 E. E. Levinger Jephthah's Daughter 13 True, as you say, I have risen from the dunghill... But who can drag me from my throne?

b. derogatory. A person of low social status or rank; a commoner or peasant. Chiefly as a demeaning term of reproach or abuse. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > peasant or rustic > [noun]

churlc1275

Hobc1325

Hodgec1386

charla1400

carlc1405

peasanta1450

hoggler1465

agrest1480

hoggener1488

rustical?1532

boor1548

rusticc1550

kern1556

clown1563

Jocka1568

John Uponlanda1568

russet coat1568

rustican1570

hind?1577

Corydon1581

gaffer1589

gran1591

russeting1597

dunghill1608

hog rubber1611

carlota1616

high shoe1647

Bonhomme1660

high-shoon-man1664

cot1695

ruralist1739

Johnnya1774

Harry1796

bodach1830

bucolic1862

cafone1872

bogman1891

country bookie1904

desi1907

middle peasant1929

woodchuck1931

swede-basher1943

moegoe1953

shit-kicker1961

1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xx. 235 Let goe slaue, or thou diest... Out dunghill.

a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) iv. iii. 87 Out dunghill: dar'st thou braue a Nobleman?

1749 Whole Trial Josiah Fearn (ed. 2) 8 God damn thee—that is thy Insolence, thou Dunghill!

1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Dunghil, a term of reproach for a man meanly born.

1796 J. Palmer Myster of Black Tower x. 156 Rated like a peasant, and all for these vile dunghills!

a. An ordinary domestic fowl, as opposed to a gamecock bred for fighting; (hence) a bird lacking in qualities regarded as desirable in a fighting cock, esp. aggressiveness. Also: any fowl that is not of a pure breed.Cf. Compounds 1b.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > genus Gallus (domestic fowl) > [noun] > member of (fowl)

chickenOE

chicka1398

fowla1586

biddya1616

chuck1615

pull-fowla1688

chucky1724

dunghill1753

dunghill fowl1796

jungle-fowl1824

chook1888

gump1914

1753 Country Gentleman's Compan. II. 1110 Make her [sc. a game-hen's] Bed of soft and sweet straw, for they be much tenderer than the Dunghills are.

1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue Dunghill, a coward; a cockpit phrase, all but game cocks being stiled dunghills.

1832 Minstrel, & Other Poems 215 A dunghill-cock, one day..Jostled against a cock of game... The dunghill now began to crow, And outward sign of valour show.

1891 Homestead (Des Moines, Iowa) 10 July 14/3 Do not think we encourage dunghills, for we do not. We believe in thoroughbreds.

1925 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 11 Feb. 10/2 It doesn't cost any more to raise thoroughbred chickens than dunghills. Try a setting of thoroughbred Buff Leghorn eggs.

1979 Southern Exposure Fall 37/2 If a cock fails to demonstrate this quality [sc. gameness], especially if it runs in the pit, it is called a ‘dunghill’, meaning that it is part commercial chicken.

1996 Dallas Observer 6 June 34/3 If a rooster collapses, or simply walks off from the fight (such a cowardly bird is known as a ‘dunghill’ in cocker parlance), the referee will count him out.

b. A cowardly person; a person lacking in courage, spirit, or fight. Now Irish English (northern).In quot. 1819 with allusion to an apparent use in Tailors' slang with equivalent meaning to dung n.¹ 6, although no other evidence for dunghill with this sense has been found.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > fear > cowardice or pusillanimity > [noun] > coward(s)

coward?a1289

hen-hearta1450

staniel?a1500

pigeon?1571

cow1581

quake-breech1584

cow-baby1594

custard1598

chicken heart1602

nidget1605

hen?1613

faintling1614

white-liver1614

chickena1616

quake-buttocka1627

skitterbrooka1652

dunghill1761

cow-heart1768

shy-cock1768

fugie1777

slag1788

man of chaff1799

fainter1826

possum1833

cowardy, cowardy, custard1836

sheep1840

white feather1857

funk1859

funkstick1860

lily-liver1860

faint-heart1870

willy boy1895

blert1905

squib1908

fraid cat (also fraidy cat)c1910–23

manso1912

feartie1923

yellowbelly1927

chicken liver1930

boneless wonder1931

scaredy-cat1933

sook1933

pantywaist1935

punk1939

ringtail1941

chickenshit1945

candy-ass1953

pansy-ass1963

unbrave1981

bottler1994

1761 Brit. Mag. 2 358 There would be no sport, as the combatants were both reckoned dunghills.

1819 W. Scott Ivanhoe III. xiii. 320 To see..whether the heroes of the day are, in the heroic language of insurgent tailors, flints or dunghills.

1878 Idaho Avalanche 2 Mar. The cowards, sneaks and dunghills who control the United States Government at the present day lack the nerve to assert their own and the nation's manhood.

1996 C. I. Macafee Conc. Ulster Dict. 111/2 Dunghill, a coward.

†c. U.S. Originally: a horse that lacks vitality, mettle, or spirit. In later use chiefly: a horse that is not a thoroughbred. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > equus caballus or horse > [noun] > inferior or old and worn-out

brockc1000

stota1100

jadec1386

yaud?a1513

roila1529

tit1548

hilding1590

tireling1590

dog horsec1600

baffle1639

Rosinante1641

aver1691

keffel1699

runt1725

hack horse1760

rip1775

kadisha1817

dunghill1833

pelter1854

crow-bait1857

caster1859

plug1860

knacker1864

plug horse1872

crock1879

skate1894

robbo1897

1833 Amer. Turf. Reg. & Sporting Mag. Oct. 66 She had four colts from Bedford: two could race, and two were arrant dunghills.

1848 Cultivator Feb. 49 Most farmers content themselves with the horse nearest to them... No wonder therefore, that ‘dunghills’ should be so plenty and thorough-breds so scarce.

1883 Iowa State Reporter 20 Sept. It would be a great protection against low-bred dunghills with bogus pedigrees being palmed off on the government as high-bred cavalry chargers.

1905 C. E. Trevathan Amer. Thoroughbred ii. 36 In all of the long story of the horses which have made the turf, the dunghill has not run at mile heats with credit to himself.

B. adj. Chiefly attributive.Some examples may be interpreted as showing attributive uses of the noun; cf. Compounds 1.

a. Of the lowest social status or standing; not noble, common; (hence) rustic, unsophisticated; crude, vulgar. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > social class > the common people > [adjective] > common

unornOE

commona1382

vulgar1530

popular1533

plain1542

dunghill1548

ordinarya1586

plebeious1610

roturier1614

terraefilian1887

1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VII f. vii A dongehyll knaue and vyle borne villeyne [sc. Lambert Simnel].

1598 J. Marston Scourge of Villanie In Lectores sig. B Each mechanick slaue, Each dunghill pesant.

1603 W. Shakespeare Hamlet ii. ii. 552 Why what a dunghill idiote [1604 rogue and pesant] slaue am I?

1633 P. Fletcher Piscatorie Eclogs ii. xiv. 10 in Purple Island The basest and most dung-hil swain, That ever drew a net, or fisht in fruitfull main.

1725 Thes. Ænigmaticus xvi. 15 Tho' in such Favour, in such Grace, Yet I am of a Dunghill Race; For not long since in Rags I went, Both then and now alike Content.

1778 Tailors i. i. 1 His mien is noble, and bespeaks the Tailor; Not of the Dunghill and degenerate race, But such as the brave Elliot led to battle.

1796 R. Burns Prose Wks. (1819) 592 Poor dunghill sons of dirt and mire, May to Patrician rights aspire!

1872 S. Potter in R. B. Kydd Old Trunk & New Carpet-bag 133 The base who flourish magnify themselves, But still are haunted by their dunghill-birth.

1920 J. Farnol Geste of Duke Jocelyn 73 ‘Know ye who and what I am, dunghill rogue?’ ‘No, dog's-breakfast—nor care!’ growled Sir Pertinax.

1980 G. Jennings Aztec 6 Our Sanctified Emperor Don Carlos can be other than scandalized by the iniquitous, salacious, and impious prattlings of this overweening specimen of a dunghill race.

b. Of a characteristic, action, behaviour, etc.: indicative of a lack of refinement and nobility; ignoble, base, despicable; unsophisticated, rustic. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > [adjective] > ill-mannered > ill-bred > specifically of conduct

ungentle1565

dunghill1576

ungenteel1633

1576 G. Whetstone Ortchard of Repentance 43 in Rocke of Regard A fearefull hart, a dunghill minde doe showe, On thornes no grapes, but sower flowes doth growe.

1613 G. Wither Abuses Stript i. vii. sig. F8^v Many I know, and yet indeed but few, that can this slauish dunghill-vice eschew.

a1631 R. Bolton Foure Last Things (1632) 230 As ambition haunteth the haughtiest spirits, so covetousnesse lodgeth in the most dunghill disposition.

1680 M. Godwyn Negro's & Indians Advocate i. 79 It being..against common Equity and Morality..in a Man to throw away the Noblest and most Precious, to save the more Dunghil and basest part of him.

1702 Tempus Adest 17 The Raising up old Rebels anew against me in Hungary, &c. was another Dunghill-Trick.

1846 North Amer. (Philadelphia) 13 Apr. It proves that Pennsylvania has not the dull and dunghill spirit ascribed to her by deriding rivals.

1949 H. L. Mencken Mencken Chrestomathy 199 New York to a Kansan is not only a place where he may get drunk, look at dirty shows and buy bogus antiques; it is also a place where he may enforce his dunghill ideas [1930 Amer. Mercury barnyard theology] upon his betters.

a. Worthless; trashy; filthy; of the nature of rubbish or refuse. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [adjective] > worthless

naughteOE

unworthc960

nought worthOE

unworthya1240

vaina1300

lewd1362

base?1510

to be nothing toc1520

stark naught1528

nothing worth1535

worthilessa1542

draffish1543

baggage1548

dunghill?1555

valureless1563

toyish1572

worthless1573

out (forth) of door (also doors)1574

leaden1577

riff-raff1577

drafty1582

fecklessc1586

dudgeon?1589

nought-worth1589

tenpenny1592

wanwordy?a1595

shotten herring1598

nugatory1603

unvalued1604

priceless1614

unvaluable1615

valuelessa1616

waste1616

trashya1620

draffy1624

stramineous1624

invaluable1640

roly-poly?1645

nugatorious1646

perquisquilian1647

niffling1649

lazy1671

wanworth1724

little wortha1754

flimsy1756

waff1788

null1790

nothingy1801

nothingly1802

twopenny-halfpenny1809

not worth a flaw1810

garbage1817

peanut1836

duffing1839

trash1843

no-account1845

no-count1851

punky1859

rummagy1872

junky1880

skilligalee1883

footle1894

punk1896

wherry-go-nimble1901

junk1908

rinky-dink1913

schlock1916

tripe1927

duff1938

chickenshit1940

sheg-up1941

expendable1942

(strictly) for the birds1943

tripey1955

schlocky1960

naff1964

dipshit1968

cack1978

?1555 Ld. Morley tr. Petrarch Tryumphes Ep. ded. sig. A.ii^v Desyrynge rather to haue a tale prynted of Robyn Hoode, or some other dongehyll matter.

1613 G. Wither Abuses Stript ii. iii. sig. S8^v But God forbid that I Such base vaine trash and dunghil stuffe [sc. worldly reputation and riches] should buy At such a rate.

1672 Scourge for Libeller (single sheet) In vain thou Leavy'st Dunghil Verse, To Sully Caryls gracefull Herse.

1707 B. Jenks Glorious Victory of Chastity 120 It would less offend the right sober modest man, should you spit in his face, rather than so to load his ears, with such worse than dunghill-filth.

1768 J. Brown Sacred Tropology vi. 131 Some delight in the dunghill riches and profits of this present world.

1824 London Mag 2 Oct. 340/2 The secret vices of society, stimulated his imagination; and stimulants he loved, and may be said at times to have wanted. He certainly did permit his fancy to feed on this dunghill garbage.

1884 A. C. Swinburne Let. 28 Jan. (1962) V. 48 The blank verse [of The Wars of Cyrus is] rather pedestrian, but better than Gorbuduc, and of course incomparably better than that damnable dunghill rubbish Locrine.

1977 N.Y. Times Mag. 6 Mar. 30/5 Screw, a blend of porn and politics all written in dunghill prose.

b. Designating a god or idol regarded as false, detestable, or abominable, as dunghill deity, dunghill god, dunghill idol. Also in extended use. Cf. dungy adj. 3b. Now rare.

ΚΠ

1577 H. I. tr. H. Bullinger 50 Godlie Serm. III. v. iii. 890/1 Wee..vtterly abhore the Pope as antichriste, and a dounghill God, or if you wil a God of the iakes-house.

1633 Bp. J. Hall Plaine Explic. Hard Texts i. 423 Rich offerings..were made to that dunghill deity.

1677 F. Bampfield All in One 112 It is a great sin in case of sickness to consult Dunghil-idols, and not the God of Israel for cure and for health.

1777 W. Aldridge Doctr. Trinity 17 The gods of the Heathen were false gods; dunghill gods, or devil gods.

1854 Edinb. Christian Mag. 5 375/1 For it is scarce to be expected that any of us will suffer any of those strange, yea, infernal fires of ambition, or avarice, or malice, or impure lusts and sensualities to burn within us, which would render us priests of idols, of airy nothings, and of dunghill gods.

1920 Jrnl. Amer. Bankers Assoc. Oct. 170/2 Now the dollar, the palatial residence, the Sunday automobile and the moving pictures seem to be the gods of our idolatry, and we prostrate ourselves in lowly reverence before these dunghill deities.

2010 Christian Sci. Monitor (Nexis) 30 Mar. ‘Military funerals have become pagan orgies of idolatrous blasphemy, where they pray to the dunghill gods of Sodom..,’ states a press release posted on the [Westboro Baptist] church's website.

†3. Lacking in courage, spirit, or fight; cowardly, faint-hearted. Cf. sense A. 4b. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > fear > cowardice or pusillanimity > [adjective]

arghc885

heartlessOE

bloodlessc1225

coward1297

faintc1300

nesha1382

comfortless1387

pusillanimousa1425

faint-heartedc1440

unheartyc1440

cowardous1480

hen-hearteda1529

cowardish1530

feigningc1540

white-livered1546

cowardly1551

faceless1567

pusillanime1570

liver-hearted1571

cowish1579

cowardise1582

coward-like1587

faint-heart1590

courageless1593

sheep-like1596

white-hearted1598

milky1602

milk-livered1608

undaring1611

lily-livereda1616

yarrow1616

flightful1626

chicken-hearted1629

poltroon1649

cow-hearted1660

whey-blooded1675

unbravea1681

nimble-heeled1719

dunghill1775

shrimp-hearted1796

chicken-livered1804

white-feathered1816

pluckless1821

chicken-spirited1822

milk-blooded1822

cowardy1836

yellow1856

yellow-livered1857

putty-hearted1872

uncourageous1878

chicken1883

piker1901

yellow-bellied1907

manso1932

scaredy-cat1933

chickenshit1940

cold-footed1944

1775 Public Advertiser 25 Jan. A Correspondent says, that..the pious Saints are allowed by those who best know them to be Dunghill almost to a Man when Danger stares them in the Face.

1828 T. Gaspey Hist. George Godfrey II. xii. 169 My late companion, the burglar..failed not to comment..on my being so dunghill, as not to affect to make the awful sentence about to be pronounced against me, a matter of merriment.

1860 Sat. Rev. 26 May 677/1 The courage of the House of Lords is generally at low pressure. But when Mr. Bright..began to trail his coat, it was hardly to be expected that the House of Lords would be ‘dunghill’ enough to refuse to tread on it.

Phrases

P1.

a. a (also each, every, etc.) cock crows (loudest) on his own dunghill and variants: one will always be most confident or assertive in the place or situation in which one feels most at home or at ease, or when dealing with a subject or area with which one is familiar or comfortable. Cf. a cock on his own mixen at mixen n. Phrases 1. Now rare (archaic in later use).

ΚΠ

a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1879) VII. 5 (MED) As Seneca seiþ, a cok is most myȝty on his dongehille [L. Gallus in proprio sterquilinio plurimum valet].

a1400 Ancrene Riwle (Pepys) (1976) 58 Men seien on englisch. Cok is kene on his owen dunge hylle.

a1475 (?a1430) J. Lydgate tr. G. Deguileville Pilgrimage Life Man (Vitell.) l. 10050 (MED) Yt ys sayd off ffolkys Sage..How that euery whyht ys bold..At the dongel at hys gate.

1546 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tongue i. xi. sig. Dii But he was at home there, he myght speake his will. Euery cocke is proude on his owne dunghill.

1696 tr. G. Croese Gen. Hist. Quakers 176 A Cock can Crow best upon his own Dunghil.

1755 Douglass's Summary State Brit. Settlements N.-Amer. (new ed.) I. 4 The French..are like cocks which fight best upon their own dunghil.

1872 Birmingham Daily News 23 Sept. 4/5 Mr. Cavendish Bentinck is one of those political cocks who always crow loudest on their own dunghill.

1945 Greece & Rome 14 69 He remembered that it is on his own dunghill that the cock crows loudest.

2005 A. Norton & L. McConchie Silver may Tarnish ii. 21 I heard Hogeth snort. ‘A cock crows loud on his own dunghill, let him crow quieter on another's.’

b. Hence elliptically one's (own) dunghill: one's home ground or territory (literal and figurative).

ΚΠ

1577 tr. ‘F. de L'Isle’ Legendarie sig. D.ij Such lickorous griediguttes of the Popes cauldron, who vpon their owne dunghil do so lightly accompt of Christian Kings and Princes.

1682 R. Kingston Cause & Cure Offences 39 Abroad in the Church or State, they will tell you nothing is right; but on their own dunghills, in their own Parishes, or Constableries, omnia bene, all is as it should be.

a1704 T. Brown Table-talk in Wks. (1707) I. ii. 34 Nothing is so Imperious as a Fellow of a College upon his own Dunghil.

1765 H. Walpole Let. 9 Mar. (1937) I. 91 But goodnight; you see how one gossips, when one is alone and at quiet on one's own dunghill!

1879 J. A. Froude Cæsar xv. 233 What he [sc. Cicero] could not say in the Forum he thought he might venture on with impunity in the Senate, which might be called his own dunghill.

1912 H. Lea Day of Saxon i. 2 When men abandon with reluctance their own dunghills for the glories of their God.., how fragile are their racial bonds!

2005 Newcastle (Austral.) Herald (Nexis) 19 May 38 There's no disgrace in losing to Dudley at Dudley they're always hard to beat on their own dunghill.

P2. In various proverbial and allusive phrases.

ΚΠ

c1410 (c1390) G. Chaucer Parson's Tale (Harl. 7334) (1885) §911 Holy writ may not be defouled no more þan þe sonne þat schyneth on a dongehul [c1405 Ellesmere Mixne].

1579 T. Pritchard Schoole Honest & Vertuous Lyfe 34 Esopes Cocke, who in the Dounghill found a precious Pearle..knew not the precious vse, and vallure thereof.

1609 J. Melton Sixe-folde Politician iii. 35 According to the prouerbe: the smel of Garlicke takes away the stink of dung hils.

1650 Man in Moon No. 51. 387 He that sits on a dunghill to day, may to morrow sit on a Throne.

1762 G. Green Nice Lady iv. 62 The Man that sows seeds in a Dunghill, has hard luck if he can't gather Pumpkins.

1784 L. MacNally Robin Hood i. 8 A diamond may be concealed in a dunghill.

1868 H. B. Hackett tr. J. J. Van Oosterzee Epist. Paul to Philemon (Phil. iv. 22–5) 28/1 in P. Schaff et al. tr. J. P. Lange et al. Comm. Holy Script.: N.T. VIII The diamond retains its lustre, though it lie on a dunghill.

2003 P. Ackroyd Clerkenwell Tales (2005) 33 ‘The sun,’ he said, ‘is none the worse for shining on a dunghill. So may it shine on me.’

†P3. cock of the dunghill and variants: the chief, most dominant, or pre-eminent person in a place, situation, etc.; esp. (depreciative) a person who overvalues having pre-eminent status in a context viewed as inconsequential or unappealing. Also in extended use of a thing. Cf. cock n.¹ 13. Obsolete.

ΚΠ

a1586 Sir P. Sidney Apol. Poetrie (1595) sig. F2^v Alexander and Darius, when they straue who should be Cocke of thys worlds dunghill.

1678 V. Alsop Melius Inquirendum i. ii. 102 One needless Opinion is made Cock of the Dung-hill, and Crows over all the rest its equals, and may be its betters.

1787 C. Dibdin Harvest-home ii. 22 I'd have you to know, I am cock of the dunghill, and no one shall approach my partlet.

1858 A. Trollope Three Clerks III. xi. 194 Mr. Chaffanbrass was the cock of this dunghill.

1897 A. Marchmont By Right of Sword iii. 26 There was a beast of a sergeant—a strong fellow in his way who had been cock of the dunghill until I came.

P4. to die dunghill: (esp. of a condemned criminal) to die in a cowardly way; to show fear or repentance when meeting one's death. Contrasted with to die game at game adj.¹ Phrases 1. Cf. Compounds 1b. Now historical.

ΚΠ

1756 W. Toldervy Hist. Two Orphans IV. 52 Submit, be a wretch, and die dunghill.

1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue at Dunghill To die dunghill, to repent or shew any signs of contrition at the gallows.

1845 D. Jerrold Hist. St. Giles & St. James x. 55/1 It would be his ambition..to die game. He had heard..the contemptuous jeering flung upon the repentant craven—..he would not be laughed, sneered at, for ‘dying dunghill.’

1856 Sat. Rev. 20 Dec. 746/1 He neither resisted like Bousfield, nor swaggered like Thistlewood, nor ‘died dunghill’ like a poor wretch a year or two ago.

1999 Birmingham Post (Nexis) 31 July 60 The victims of the law.., dying ‘dunghill’ or ‘game’ at the end of a rope.

Compounds

C1. attributive.

a. Designating an animal or breed of a common, ordinary, domestic kind, such as might be found in the vicinity of a farmyard or household dunghill, as distinguished from an animal of an improved breed, a thoroughbred, etc. Now rare (archaic in later use).For specific uses relating to chickens, see Compounds 1b.

ΚΠ

c1450 MS Coll. Arms f. 1, in Middle Eng. Dict. at Mastif There beth grehowndys.., mene Mastewys,..spaynelle[s]..and terrourys, bocher hondis and dongehylle curres, and smale poupes ffor lady chambers.

a1475 (?a1410) J. Lydgate Churl & Bird (Longleat) in E. P. Hammond Eng. Verse between Chaucer & Surrey (1927) 110 All oon to the a facoun & a kite As good an owle as a Popyngay A dongel [c1475 Harl. downghille, a1500 Lansd. donghyl] doke as deynte as a snyte.

1575 G. Gascoigne Noble Arte Venerie lxxii. 198 Euerie widowes flocke: a capon or a chicke, A pyg, a goose, a dunghill ducke, or ought that salt will licke.

1602 2nd Pt. Returne from Pernassus (Arb.) ii. v. 30 Dunghill dogges, trindle tailes, prick-eard curres.

1706 C. Cibber Perolla & Izadora ii. 24 Supine and speechless as a Dunghill Dog!

1805 J. Adams Anal. Horsemanship (new ed.) III. App. 253 No dealer would ensure to you, what he could never ensure to himself, that the horse shall turn out all you wish or require him to be;..he may be a dunghill horse.

1895 Rep. Agric. Province New Brunswick 1894 100 In cattle, we have Shorthorns, Jerseys, Durhams, Ayrshires and a few Holsteins. all of which.., when properly fed, easily display their superiority over the dunghill breeds.

1912 J. E. Ford Fact, Fun, & Fiction for Auctioneers vii. 284 If a man tells you that an old, dunghill cow, and hazel splitter hogs, are just as good for pork and beef as any, stand up and look yourself over at a distance before you swallow it all.

1955 N. C. Wilson Freedom Song 260 Oh, Mater, Mater, now I am mounted on a shabby dunghill horse taken from one of my troopers.

b. Designating an ordinary, common, domestic cock or hen, as distinguished from game birds bred for fighting or (later) any improved breed, as dunghill cock, dunghill fowl, dunghill hen, etc.; designating a breed of such fowl. Hence (Cockfighting): designating any bird lacking in characteristics or qualities regarded as desirable in a game bird, esp. aggressiveness.See also dunghill craven n. at Compounds 2.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > hen or cock > [noun] > cock

cockeOE

chanticleer?a1300

common astrologera1413

dunghill cock1561

red cock1591

cock-a-doodle-doo1604

roost-cock1606

alectryon1664

stag1730

rooster1772

doodle-doo1785

cock bird1788

the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > hen or cock > [noun] > hen

henOE

Partletc1390

margery-prater1567

dunghill hen1611

the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > genus Gallus (domestic fowl) > [noun] > member of (fowl)

chickenOE

chicka1398

fowla1586

biddya1616

chuck1615

pull-fowla1688

chucky1724

dunghill1753

dunghill fowl1796

jungle-fowl1824

chook1888

gump1914

1561 B. Googe tr. ‘M. Palingenius’ Zodiake of Life (new ed.) vi. sig. S.iii But yet it forceth not if that the donghil cocke do gesse A precious stone as nothing worth.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Vne poule de pailler, a dunghill henne, a henne thats fed at the barne doore.

1646 T. Swadlin Jesuite i. 31 You have driven me, not like a right bred Cock of the game, but like a ranck bastard or dunghill Bird out of the Pit.

1727 R. Bradley Country Housewife & Lady's Director 17 The sorts of the House Pullen, or common Poultry, are many; but..I shall only take notice of such as are of the large Dunghill kind, or..the Game kind, and of the small Dutch kind.

1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth V. 163 The game-cock being by no means so fruitful as the ungenerous dunghill-cock.

1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) I. 112 A few dung-hill fowls were also found on these islands.

1822 W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II. iii. 59 There goes a dunghill chicken, that your master has plucked clean enough; it will be long ere his lordship ruffle a feather with a cock of the game.

1891 Florida Agriculturist 30 Dec. 727/1 A cross for three years on a fine dunghill breed will give a strain seven eighths pure.

1936 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 25 Feb. 12/7 It takes the same to feed a ‘dungle’ hen laying eggs 14 to the lb. as a Rhode Island or other improved breed.

1953 Hattiesburg (Mississippi) Amer. 7 Jan. 6/3 All non-fighting chickens are known in the cocker's language as dunghill chickens.

2017 www.sabong.net.ph 21 Apr. (forum post, accessed 23 Apr. 2018) There are many differences between a domestic type egg chicken and a gamefowl.... To breed a game cock to a dunghill hen is just foolishness.

C2.

dunghill beetle n. = dung beetle n. at dung n.¹ Compounds 2.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Coleoptera or beetles and weevils > [noun] > Polyphaga (omnivorous) > superfamily Lamellicornia Scarabaeoidea > family Scarabaeidae > member of (dung-beetle)

sharnbudc1000

dora1450

clock1568

sharn-bug1608

dung beetle1634

grey fly1638

dunghill beetle1658

comb-chafer1712

tumble-turd1754

tumble-dung1775

dung-chafer1805

tumble-bug1805

tumbler1807

bull-comber1813

straddle-bug1839

lamellicorn1842

scarabaeidan1842

shard-beetle1854

watchman1864

scarabaeoid1887

scarabaeid1891

minotaur1918

1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 1009 Some call the Pilularius the dunghill Beetle, because it breeds from dung and filth.

1868 M. R. Barnard tr. C. W. Paijkull Summer in Iceland 356/1 Scarabæus fimetarius. Dunghill beetle.

1966 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 27 Feb. 3/1 The bulldozers were bumbling along like dunghill beetles, pushing the sand away.

2005 Manch. Evening News (Nexis) 26 Aug. 33 As a child, she was told never to leave food and was often reminded how Joe had to eat dunghill beetles in the war.

† dunghill craven n. Obsolete a common domestic fowl, as distinguished from a gamecock bred for fighting (cf. Compounds 1b); (in extended use) a contemptible or cowardly person or thing.Recorded earliest in extended use.

ΚΠ

1587 W. Lightfoot Complaint Eng. sig. F3 The Emperor seeing himselfe so disdainefully ouercrowed by a dunghill crauen [sc. the Pope], could not suppresse his heroicall stomacke.

1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks III. Misc. iv. ii. 218 The difference..between the Game-Cock, and the Dunghil-Craven.

1819 A. Balfour Campbell II. xxiv. 124 Next appears an ill-matched pair—a bird of game and a dunghill craven.

1908 Salt Lake Tribune 21 Feb. 4/4 It [sc. a newspaper] is..a dunghill craven whose pretended courage is not sufficient to ooze out a turn-tail ‘Boo!’ to a flying goose.

dunghill raker n. now historical and rare a person who rakes through or rakes up refuse, esp. in search of things which may be reused, sold, or recycled (often used as a type of the lowest social or economic class); in early use also as a term of abuse or contempt.

ΚΠ

1591 J. Hester tr. J. Du Chesne Breefe Aunswere Expos. I. Aubertus f. 56^v Some donghill raker, that is altogether vnskilfull in phisicke.

1640 J. D. Knave in Graine iii. sig. H Why Drawer, Dog, Dunghill-raker.

1659 G. Swinnock Ὀυρανος και Ταρταρος 160 A King will sooner admit dunghill-rakers and privy-cleaners..into his bed, then God will take thee..into heaven.

1694 T. D'Urfey Comical Hist. Don Quixote: Pt. 2nd v. i. 52 Why how now ye Dunghill-raker, ye old rusty Pruning-knife, ye Maggot in a Pescod, ye Catterpiller.

1853 J. Mills Brit. Jews iii. ii. 266 The man..can speak no fewer than five languages... By profession he, nevertheless, is but a bone-gatherer, and dunghill raker.

1995 D. B. J. Randall Winter Fruit iv. 62 The Gossips Braule..(1655)..is a tongue combat between Jone, Doll, Meg, and Bess (a dunghill raker, a fishwife, a washerwoman, and a hostess).

Derivatives

† ˈdunghillry n. (in form donghillrie) Obsolete base or despicable condition or behaviour.Apparently an isolated use.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > ignobleness or baseness > [noun]

villainyc1386

simplessea1393

littlenessa1400

unnoblenessc1400

unnobilitya1425

unnobletya1425

ignoblenessc1450

ignobility?a1475

vileness1549

vilityc1550

haskardy?1578

dunghillry1581

indignity1589

beggarya1616

ignoblesse?1616

poorness1625

lowness1652

meanness1660

society > morality > moral evil > evil nature or character > lack of magnanimity or noble-mindedness > [noun] > baseness or moral vileness

vilety?c1225

villainy?c1225

vilehead1340

caitiftya1400

vilitya1425

ignoblenessc1450

ignobility?a1475

vileness1526

baseness1537

dunghillry1581

base-mindedness1582

vildness1597

beggarya1616

lowness1652

villainya1719

caddishness1868

bounderishness1899

1581 R. Mulcaster Positions xxxix. 207 Where I see nobilitie betraid to donghillrie, and learning to doultrie.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

单词	dunghill
释义	dunghilln.adj. Brit. /ˈdʌŋhɪl/, U.S. /ˈdəŋˌhɪl/ Forms: see dung n.¹ and hill n.; also Middle English dingel, Middle English dongel, Middle English dunggill, 1500s dungle; English regional 1800s dunggul (Oxfordshire), 1900s– dunggel (Hertfordshire), 1900s– dung'll (Hertfordshire); U.S. regional (Virginia) 1800s dungil; Irish English (northern) 1900s– dochal, 1900s– duchal, 1900s– duckle, 1900s– duhal, 1900s– duncle, 1900s– dunghal, 1900s– dunkil, 1900s– dunkle. Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: dung n.¹, hill n. Etymology: < dung n.¹ + hill n. Compare dung heap n. and muckhill n.Some of the Irish English forms (especially in sense A. 4b) may show the influence of forms of Irish English (and Scots) dochle mild-natured, easy-going person, foolish or stupid person (19th cent.). Attested earlier as a field name: Dungehulle, Warwickshire (1235). A. n. 1. A heap or accumulation of dung; esp. a pile in a farmyard into which animal dung, soiled straw, etc., is gathered to be stored and typically rotted down to be used as manure. Also more generally: a refuse heap; a domestic ash heap; a midden. Now chiefly historical. ΘΚΠ the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > dirtiness > dirty place > [noun] > dunghill mixenOE dung heap?a1300 miskinc1300 muckhilla1325 dunghillc1330 muck-heapa1400 middena1425 modyngstretea1500 dung mixenc1500 laystowa1513 mixhill1552 muck midden1552 laystall1553 middenstead1583 layheap1624 dung pile1658 midden lair1692 thurrock1708 stercorary1759 midden stance1844 c1330 Seven Sages (Auch.) (1933) l. 2283 Go delue anon in þi donghel, Þou sschalt hit [sc. a gold hord] finde swiþe snel. a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xviii. xxvii. 1171 Þey [sc. houndes in elde] slepeþ a day vpon donge hilles. 1422 in R. W. Chambers & M. Daunt Bk. London Eng. (1931) 129 Þer is a donghill..kasting out in-to þis land ordour of Prevees and other orrible siȝtis. 1484 W. Caxton tr. Subtyl Historyes & Fables Esope (1967) i. i. 74 A Cok ones sought his pasture in the donghylle. 1525 R. Whitford tr. Hugh of St. Victor Expos. vii, in tr. St. Augustine Rule f. lxxxiij A person axed a good housbonde,..what wolde make a fatte muckhepe, or a good dunghyll. a1550 (c1477) T. Norton Ordinal of Alchemy (Bodl. e Mus.) l. 1998 (MED) Dongehilles in somer stynke more then in winter season. a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Oxf. 331 The body of the wife of Peter Martyr..had been disgracefully buried in a dunghill. 1697 T. P. Blount Ess. 29 Raking of Dunghills is an Employment more fit for a Scavenger than a Gentleman. 1707 tr. P. Le Lorrain de Vallemont Curiosities in Husbandry & Gardening 266 A Dunghill..is of wondrous Efficacy to forward the Flowers. 1745 tr. L. J. M. Columella Of Husbandry ii. xv In the summer months the whole dunghil must be thoroughly mixed and shuffled with spades. 1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. ii. iii. 424 One-half, perhaps, [of provisions] is thrown to the dunghill . View more context for this quotation 1804 Rep. Soc. for bettering Condition of Poor IV. App. xxiv. 140 By this means poor people never need to carry their ashes to the dunghill. 1856 H. Stephens Catchism Pract. Agric. 19 The manure from the byres and stables is wheeled daily and spread upon the dunghills. 1894 Fishing Gaz. 28 Apr. 410/2 There were fish bones and guts strewed over the midden, or kitchen dunghill. 1923 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 30 June 1101/2 The streets..were rendered still more incommodious by the habit of keeping small dunghills before the house doors. 1979 F. Davies tr. A. France Gods will have Blood x. 119 Beyond the barn were the cow sheds, in front of which a dunghill rose in mountainous grandeur. 2002 K. Olsen All Things Shakespeare I. 388 In the country..human waste was added to the dunghill..or compost pile, to which stable dung and scraps too humble for even pigs were also added. 2. figurative. a. A collection or repository of worthless, foul, or contemptible things. Often (esp. in early use) applied to the temporal world, the human body, etc., as corrupt, depraved, or subject to change, decay, etc. ΚΠ 1340 Ayenbite (1866) 81 (MED) Non uayr body ne is bote..ase a donghel besnewed. a1450 (c1400) in D. M. Grisdale 3 Middle Eng. Serm. (1939) 58 (MED) Let vs..lift vr sowle fro þe stynkynge dingel o lustes o þis world. a1475 (?a1430) J. Lydgate tr. G. Deguileville Pilgrimage Life Man (Vitell.) l. 9714 (MED) Yiff thow dyst hem nat supporte..Thy body wer nat euerydel But a verray foul dongel. 1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. EEEi The fowle and fylthy donghyll of this worlde. 1540 R. Morison tr. J. L. Vives Introd. Wysedome (new ed.) C ij The fayrest body is nothing els but a doungehyll covered in white and purple. 1559 W. Baldwin et al. Myrroure for Magistrates Salisbury ix And buryed in the dounghil of defame. 1617 T. Middleton & W. Rowley Faire Quarrell ii. sig. D^v More to be loathde then vilenes; or sins dunghill. 1692 J. Washington tr. J. Milton Def. People Eng. v. 119 For matter of Books, there is no body publishes huger Dunghils than you. 1864 Last Vials May 14 Human government has made the world a dunghill of corruption. 1968 Luso-Brazilian Rev. 5 75 The City is no longer described as the epitome of Civilization—but rather as the dunghill of mankind. 2009 Furrow 60 494 Time, that most just of judges, has levelled both the summits of achievement and the dunghills of failure, wearing them down to their essential fragility and insignificance. b. A person likened to a dunghill in being filthy or disgusting in some way, esp. (in early use) in being morally corrupt or (now usually) in being very dirty or scruffy. Often with modifying word, as human, moving, walking. ΘΚΠ the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > evil person > [noun] fiendc1220 shrewc1250 quedea1275 felon1340 malfeasorc1380 evil-doer1398 forfeiter1413 pucka1450 malefactor?c1450 wicked-doerc1450 improbe1484 wicked1484 Gomorrheana1529 dunghill1542 felonian1594 naughta1639 black sheep1640 pimp1649 hellicat1816 malfeasant1867 a bad sortc1869 bad seed1954 bloody1960 society > morality > moral evil > evil nature or character > [noun] > person of bad character argha1275 noughty packc1520 dunghill1542 land-rat1600 black sheep1640 cacodemon1711 mauvais sujet1793 bad lot1835 badmash1843 rotter1879 wrong 'un1892 wrongo1937 1542 N. Udall tr. Erasmus Apophthegmes i. f. 81 Diogenes dryuyng theim awaye w^t a staf, saied: I bade menne to approche, and not dounge hylles or draffesackes [L. homines, inquit, adesse iussi, non sterquilinia]. c1560 T. Becon Relikes of Rome sig. J.iii^v Shal the vile donghylles of the earth presume to alter the blessed and euerlasting testament of the only begotten Sonne of God? 1665 J. Spencer Disc. Vulgar Prophecies 49 Paracelsus..was a walking Dunghil (so offensive and corrupt his life). 1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue (at cited word) Moving dunghill, a dirty filthy man or woman. 1797 A. M. Bennett Beggar Girl I. iii. 68 To wash and clean the dirtiest little beggar that ever crept on a dunghill, who was indeed herself a moving dunghill, was certainly a disagreeable job. 1832 C. Colton Lacon (rev. ed.) I. 7 Mrs. Montague retorted upon Voltaire, that if Shakspeare was a dunghill, he had enriched a very ungrateful soil. 1860 Fraser's Mag. Mar. 335/1 I looked in the blockhead's face, and inwardly said, Oh you human dunghill! 1963 E. H. Ramsden tr. Michelangelo Lett. I. xc. 85 Besides all the other worries I have, I've now got this dunghill of a boy. 1996 A. Garner Strandloper (1997) xiii. 92 ‘Who, you, you moving dunghill?’ says I. ‘You piss more than you drink!’ †3. a. With the. The ordinary domestic or farmyard dunghill used metonymically as an emblem of low social status or rank, poverty, or deprivation. Obsolete.Originally in, and frequently with allusion to, biblical use in 1 Samuel 2:18 (see quot. 1537). ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > social class > the common people > low rank or condition > [noun] lowness?c1225 unnobleyc1384 noughtc1400 ignoblenessc1450 innoblessea1470 deuce-ace1481 ignobility1483 dunghill1537 vilityc1550 baseness1552 humility1623 non-class1973 1537 Bible (Matthew's) 1 Sam. ii. 8 He reyseth vp the poore out of the dust, and lyfteth vp the begger from the dong hill: to sett them among princes. 1546 G. Joye Refut. Byshop Winchesters Derke Declar. f.cxxxi A prince..which hath promoted you out of the donghill to sit felowlike with lordes and dukes. 1569 S. Batman Christall Glasse Christian Reform. sig. C.j The yeomandry or francklin..seeketh by the recouery of spirituall promotion from the dunghill to be a gentleman. 1641 Country-mans Care 4 You may see Coblers and Tinkers rising from the very Dunghill, beating the Pulpits as conformably, as if they were the Kings professors of Divinity. 1688 P. Rycaut tr. G. de la Vega Royal Comm. Peru v. xxxvi. 833 He had raised..him..from a mean and poor to a rich and high condition, and advanced him from the dunghill to a considerable degree. 1787 S. Trimmer Œconomy of Charity 46 Poor children have a greater regard to their behaviour when they are lifted from the dunghill, decently clothed, and noticed by their superiors. 1817 Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 11 Jan. 40 Those who have risen suddenly from the dunghill to a chariot. 1868 R. H. Davis Dallas Galbraith v. 93/2 This fellow—whom he had taken from the dunghill, and to whom family and rank and an estate like a principality came and waited. 1921 E. E. Levinger Jephthah's Daughter 13 True, as you say, I have risen from the dunghill... But who can drag me from my throne? b. derogatory. A person of low social status or rank; a commoner or peasant. Chiefly as a demeaning term of reproach or abuse. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > peasant or rustic > [noun] churlc1275 Hobc1325 Hodgec1386 charla1400 carlc1405 peasanta1450 hoggler1465 agrest1480 hoggener1488 rustical?1532 boor1548 rusticc1550 kern1556 clown1563 Jocka1568 John Uponlanda1568 russet coat1568 rustican1570 hind?1577 Corydon1581 gaffer1589 gran1591 russeting1597 dunghill1608 hog rubber1611 carlota1616 high shoe1647 Bonhomme1660 high-shoon-man1664 cot1695 ruralist1739 Johnnya1774 Harry1796 bodach1830 bucolic1862 cafone1872 bogman1891 country bookie1904 desi1907 middle peasant1929 woodchuck1931 swede-basher1943 moegoe1953 shit-kicker1961 1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xx. 235 Let goe slaue, or thou diest... Out dunghill. a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) iv. iii. 87 Out dunghill: dar'st thou braue a Nobleman? View more context for this quotation 1749 Whole Trial Josiah Fearn (ed. 2) 8 God damn thee—that is thy Insolence, thou Dunghill! 1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Dunghil, a term of reproach for a man meanly born. 1796 J. Palmer Myster of Black Tower x. 156 Rated like a peasant, and all for these vile dunghills! 4. a. An ordinary domestic fowl, as opposed to a gamecock bred for fighting; (hence) a bird lacking in qualities regarded as desirable in a fighting cock, esp. aggressiveness. Also: any fowl that is not of a pure breed.Cf. Compounds 1b. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > genus Gallus (domestic fowl) > [noun] > member of (fowl) chickenOE chicka1398 fowla1586 biddya1616 chuck1615 pull-fowla1688 chucky1724 dunghill1753 dunghill fowl1796 jungle-fowl1824 chook1888 gump1914 1753 Country Gentleman's Compan. II. 1110 Make her [sc. a game-hen's] Bed of soft and sweet straw, for they be much tenderer than the Dunghills are. 1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue Dunghill, a coward; a cockpit phrase, all but game cocks being stiled dunghills. 1832 Minstrel, & Other Poems 215 A dunghill-cock, one day..Jostled against a cock of game... The dunghill now began to crow, And outward sign of valour show. 1891 Homestead (Des Moines, Iowa) 10 July 14/3 Do not think we encourage dunghills, for we do not. We believe in thoroughbreds. 1925 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 11 Feb. 10/2 It doesn't cost any more to raise thoroughbred chickens than dunghills. Try a setting of thoroughbred Buff Leghorn eggs. 1979 Southern Exposure Fall 37/2 If a cock fails to demonstrate this quality [sc. gameness], especially if it runs in the pit, it is called a ‘dunghill’, meaning that it is part commercial chicken. 1996 Dallas Observer 6 June 34/3 If a rooster collapses, or simply walks off from the fight (such a cowardly bird is known as a ‘dunghill’ in cocker parlance), the referee will count him out. b. A cowardly person; a person lacking in courage, spirit, or fight. Now Irish English (northern).In quot. 1819 with allusion to an apparent use in Tailors' slang with equivalent meaning to dung n.¹ 6, although no other evidence for dunghill with this sense has been found. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > fear > cowardice or pusillanimity > [noun] > coward(s) coward?a1289 hen-hearta1450 staniel?a1500 pigeon?1571 cow1581 quake-breech1584 cow-baby1594 custard1598 chicken heart1602 nidget1605 hen?1613 faintling1614 white-liver1614 chickena1616 quake-buttocka1627 skitterbrooka1652 dunghill1761 cow-heart1768 shy-cock1768 fugie1777 slag1788 man of chaff1799 fainter1826 possum1833 cowardy, cowardy, custard1836 sheep1840 white feather1857 funk1859 funkstick1860 lily-liver1860 faint-heart1870 willy boy1895 blert1905 squib1908 fraid cat (also fraidy cat)c1910–23 manso1912 feartie1923 yellowbelly1927 chicken liver1930 boneless wonder1931 scaredy-cat1933 sook1933 pantywaist1935 punk1939 ringtail1941 chickenshit1945 candy-ass1953 pansy-ass1963 unbrave1981 bottler1994 1761 Brit. Mag. 2 358 There would be no sport, as the combatants were both reckoned dunghills. 1819 W. Scott Ivanhoe III. xiii. 320 To see..whether the heroes of the day are, in the heroic language of insurgent tailors, flints or dunghills. 1878 Idaho Avalanche 2 Mar. The cowards, sneaks and dunghills who control the United States Government at the present day lack the nerve to assert their own and the nation's manhood. 1996 C. I. Macafee Conc. Ulster Dict. 111/2 Dunghill, a coward. †c. U.S. Originally: a horse that lacks vitality, mettle, or spirit. In later use chiefly: a horse that is not a thoroughbred. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > equus caballus or horse > [noun] > inferior or old and worn-out brockc1000 stota1100 jadec1386 yaud?a1513 roila1529 tit1548 hilding1590 tireling1590 dog horsec1600 baffle1639 Rosinante1641 aver1691 keffel1699 runt1725 hack horse1760 rip1775 kadisha1817 dunghill1833 pelter1854 crow-bait1857 caster1859 plug1860 knacker1864 plug horse1872 crock1879 skate1894 robbo1897 1833 Amer. Turf. Reg. & Sporting Mag. Oct. 66 She had four colts from Bedford: two could race, and two were arrant dunghills. 1848 Cultivator Feb. 49 Most farmers content themselves with the horse nearest to them... No wonder therefore, that ‘dunghills’ should be so plenty and thorough-breds so scarce. 1883 Iowa State Reporter 20 Sept. It would be a great protection against low-bred dunghills with bogus pedigrees being palmed off on the government as high-bred cavalry chargers. 1905 C. E. Trevathan Amer. Thoroughbred ii. 36 In all of the long story of the horses which have made the turf, the dunghill has not run at mile heats with credit to himself. B. adj. Chiefly attributive.Some examples may be interpreted as showing attributive uses of the noun; cf. Compounds 1. 1. a. Of the lowest social status or standing; not noble, common; (hence) rustic, unsophisticated; crude, vulgar. Now rare. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > social class > the common people > [adjective] > common unornOE commona1382 vulgar1530 popular1533 plain1542 dunghill1548 ordinarya1586 plebeious1610 roturier1614 terraefilian1887 1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VII f. vii A dongehyll knaue and vyle borne villeyne [sc. Lambert Simnel]. 1598 J. Marston Scourge of Villanie In Lectores sig. B Each mechanick slaue, Each dunghill pesant. 1603 W. Shakespeare Hamlet ii. ii. 552 Why what a dunghill idiote [1604 rogue and pesant] slaue am I? 1633 P. Fletcher Piscatorie Eclogs ii. xiv. 10 in Purple Island The basest and most dung-hil swain, That ever drew a net, or fisht in fruitfull main. 1725 Thes. Ænigmaticus xvi. 15 Tho' in such Favour, in such Grace, Yet I am of a Dunghill Race; For not long since in Rags I went, Both then and now alike Content. 1778 Tailors i. i. 1 His mien is noble, and bespeaks the Tailor; Not of the Dunghill and degenerate race, But such as the brave Elliot led to battle. 1796 R. Burns Prose Wks. (1819) 592 Poor dunghill sons of dirt and mire, May to Patrician rights aspire! 1872 S. Potter in R. B. Kydd Old Trunk & New Carpet-bag 133 The base who flourish magnify themselves, But still are haunted by their dunghill-birth. 1920 J. Farnol Geste of Duke Jocelyn 73 ‘Know ye who and what I am, dunghill rogue?’ ‘No, dog's-breakfast—nor care!’ growled Sir Pertinax. 1980 G. Jennings Aztec 6 Our Sanctified Emperor Don Carlos can be other than scandalized by the iniquitous, salacious, and impious prattlings of this overweening specimen of a dunghill race. b. Of a characteristic, action, behaviour, etc.: indicative of a lack of refinement and nobility; ignoble, base, despicable; unsophisticated, rustic. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > [adjective] > ill-mannered > ill-bred > specifically of conduct ungentle1565 dunghill1576 ungenteel1633 1576 G. Whetstone Ortchard of Repentance 43 in Rocke of Regard A fearefull hart, a dunghill minde doe showe, On thornes no grapes, but sower flowes doth growe. 1613 G. Wither Abuses Stript i. vii. sig. F8^v Many I know, and yet indeed but few, that can this slauish dunghill-vice eschew. a1631 R. Bolton Foure Last Things (1632) 230 As ambition haunteth the haughtiest spirits, so covetousnesse lodgeth in the most dunghill disposition. 1680 M. Godwyn Negro's & Indians Advocate i. 79 It being..against common Equity and Morality..in a Man to throw away the Noblest and most Precious, to save the more Dunghil and basest part of him. 1702 Tempus Adest 17 The Raising up old Rebels anew against me in Hungary, &c. was another Dunghill-Trick. 1846 North Amer. (Philadelphia) 13 Apr. It proves that Pennsylvania has not the dull and dunghill spirit ascribed to her by deriding rivals. 1949 H. L. Mencken Mencken Chrestomathy 199 New York to a Kansan is not only a place where he may get drunk, look at dirty shows and buy bogus antiques; it is also a place where he may enforce his dunghill ideas [1930 Amer. Mercury barnyard theology] upon his betters. 2. a. Worthless; trashy; filthy; of the nature of rubbish or refuse. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [adjective] > worthless naughteOE unworthc960 nought worthOE unworthya1240 vaina1300 lewd1362 base?1510 to be nothing toc1520 stark naught1528 nothing worth1535 worthilessa1542 draffish1543 baggage1548 dunghill?1555 valureless1563 toyish1572 worthless1573 out (forth) of door (also doors)1574 leaden1577 riff-raff1577 drafty1582 fecklessc1586 dudgeon?1589 nought-worth1589 tenpenny1592 wanwordy?a1595 shotten herring1598 nugatory1603 unvalued1604 priceless1614 unvaluable1615 valuelessa1616 waste1616 trashya1620 draffy1624 stramineous1624 invaluable1640 roly-poly?1645 nugatorious1646 perquisquilian1647 niffling1649 lazy1671 wanworth1724 little wortha1754 flimsy1756 waff1788 null1790 nothingy1801 nothingly1802 twopenny-halfpenny1809 not worth a flaw1810 garbage1817 peanut1836 duffing1839 trash1843 no-account1845 no-count1851 punky1859 rummagy1872 junky1880 skilligalee1883 footle1894 punk1896 wherry-go-nimble1901 junk1908 rinky-dink1913 schlock1916 tripe1927 duff1938 chickenshit1940 sheg-up1941 expendable1942 (strictly) for the birds1943 tripey1955 schlocky1960 naff1964 dipshit1968 cack1978 ?1555 Ld. Morley tr. Petrarch Tryumphes Ep. ded. sig. A.ii^v Desyrynge rather to haue a tale prynted of Robyn Hoode, or some other dongehyll matter. 1613 G. Wither Abuses Stript ii. iii. sig. S8^v But God forbid that I Such base vaine trash and dunghil stuffe [sc. worldly reputation and riches] should buy At such a rate. 1672 Scourge for Libeller (single sheet) In vain thou Leavy'st Dunghil Verse, To Sully Caryls gracefull Herse. 1707 B. Jenks Glorious Victory of Chastity 120 It would less offend the right sober modest man, should you spit in his face, rather than so to load his ears, with such worse than dunghill-filth. 1768 J. Brown Sacred Tropology vi. 131 Some delight in the dunghill riches and profits of this present world. 1824 London Mag 2 Oct. 340/2 The secret vices of society, stimulated his imagination; and stimulants he loved, and may be said at times to have wanted. He certainly did permit his fancy to feed on this dunghill garbage. 1884 A. C. Swinburne Let. 28 Jan. (1962) V. 48 The blank verse [of The Wars of Cyrus is] rather pedestrian, but better than Gorbuduc, and of course incomparably better than that damnable dunghill rubbish Locrine. 1977 N.Y. Times Mag. 6 Mar. 30/5 Screw, a blend of porn and politics all written in dunghill prose. b. Designating a god or idol regarded as false, detestable, or abominable, as dunghill deity, dunghill god, dunghill idol. Also in extended use. Cf. dungy adj. 3b. Now rare. ΚΠ 1577 H. I. tr. H. Bullinger 50 Godlie Serm. III. v. iii. 890/1 Wee..vtterly abhore the Pope as antichriste, and a dounghill God, or if you wil a God of the iakes-house. 1633 Bp. J. Hall Plaine Explic. Hard Texts i. 423 Rich offerings..were made to that dunghill deity. 1677 F. Bampfield All in One 112 It is a great sin in case of sickness to consult Dunghil-idols, and not the God of Israel for cure and for health. 1777 W. Aldridge Doctr. Trinity 17 The gods of the Heathen were false gods; dunghill gods, or devil gods. 1854 Edinb. Christian Mag. 5 375/1 For it is scarce to be expected that any of us will suffer any of those strange, yea, infernal fires of ambition, or avarice, or malice, or impure lusts and sensualities to burn within us, which would render us priests of idols, of airy nothings, and of dunghill gods. 1920 Jrnl. Amer. Bankers Assoc. Oct. 170/2 Now the dollar, the palatial residence, the Sunday automobile and the moving pictures seem to be the gods of our idolatry, and we prostrate ourselves in lowly reverence before these dunghill deities. 2010 Christian Sci. Monitor (Nexis) 30 Mar. ‘Military funerals have become pagan orgies of idolatrous blasphemy, where they pray to the dunghill gods of Sodom..,’ states a press release posted on the [Westboro Baptist] church's website. †3. Lacking in courage, spirit, or fight; cowardly, faint-hearted. Cf. sense A. 4b. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > fear > cowardice or pusillanimity > [adjective] arghc885 heartlessOE bloodlessc1225 coward1297 faintc1300 nesha1382 comfortless1387 pusillanimousa1425 faint-heartedc1440 unheartyc1440 cowardous1480 hen-hearteda1529 cowardish1530 feigningc1540 white-livered1546 cowardly1551 faceless1567 pusillanime1570 liver-hearted1571 cowish1579 cowardise1582 coward-like1587 faint-heart1590 courageless1593 sheep-like1596 white-hearted1598 milky1602 milk-livered1608 undaring1611 lily-livereda1616 yarrow1616 flightful1626 chicken-hearted1629 poltroon1649 cow-hearted1660 whey-blooded1675 unbravea1681 nimble-heeled1719 dunghill1775 shrimp-hearted1796 chicken-livered1804 white-feathered1816 pluckless1821 chicken-spirited1822 milk-blooded1822 cowardy1836 yellow1856 yellow-livered1857 putty-hearted1872 uncourageous1878 chicken1883 piker1901 yellow-bellied1907 manso1932 scaredy-cat1933 chickenshit1940 cold-footed1944 1775 Public Advertiser 25 Jan. A Correspondent says, that..the pious Saints are allowed by those who best know them to be Dunghill almost to a Man when Danger stares them in the Face. 1828 T. Gaspey Hist. George Godfrey II. xii. 169 My late companion, the burglar..failed not to comment..on my being so dunghill, as not to affect to make the awful sentence about to be pronounced against me, a matter of merriment. 1860 Sat. Rev. 26 May 677/1 The courage of the House of Lords is generally at low pressure. But when Mr. Bright..began to trail his coat, it was hardly to be expected that the House of Lords would be ‘dunghill’ enough to refuse to tread on it. Phrases P1. a. a (also each, every, etc.) cock crows (loudest) on his own dunghill and variants: one will always be most confident or assertive in the place or situation in which one feels most at home or at ease, or when dealing with a subject or area with which one is familiar or comfortable. Cf. a cock on his own mixen at mixen n. Phrases 1. Now rare (archaic in later use). ΚΠ a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1879) VII. 5 (MED) As Seneca seiþ, a cok is most myȝty on his dongehille [L. Gallus in proprio sterquilinio plurimum valet]. a1400 Ancrene Riwle (Pepys) (1976) 58 Men seien on englisch. Cok is kene on his owen dunge hylle. a1475 (?a1430) J. Lydgate tr. G. Deguileville Pilgrimage Life Man (Vitell.) l. 10050 (MED) Yt ys sayd off ffolkys Sage..How that euery whyht ys bold..At the dongel at hys gate. 1546 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tongue i. xi. sig. Dii But he was at home there, he myght speake his will. Euery cocke is proude on his owne dunghill. 1696 tr. G. Croese Gen. Hist. Quakers 176 A Cock can Crow best upon his own Dunghil. 1755 Douglass's Summary State Brit. Settlements N.-Amer. (new ed.) I. 4 The French..are like cocks which fight best upon their own dunghil. 1872 Birmingham Daily News 23 Sept. 4/5 Mr. Cavendish Bentinck is one of those political cocks who always crow loudest on their own dunghill. 1945 Greece & Rome 14 69 He remembered that it is on his own dunghill that the cock crows loudest. 2005 A. Norton & L. McConchie Silver may Tarnish ii. 21 I heard Hogeth snort. ‘A cock crows loud on his own dunghill, let him crow quieter on another's.’ b. Hence elliptically one's (own) dunghill: one's home ground or territory (literal and figurative). ΚΠ 1577 tr. ‘F. de L'Isle’ Legendarie sig. D.ij Such lickorous griediguttes of the Popes cauldron, who vpon their owne dunghil do so lightly accompt of Christian Kings and Princes. 1682 R. Kingston Cause & Cure Offences 39 Abroad in the Church or State, they will tell you nothing is right; but on their own dunghills, in their own Parishes, or Constableries, omnia bene, all is as it should be. a1704 T. Brown Table-talk in Wks. (1707) I. ii. 34 Nothing is so Imperious as a Fellow of a College upon his own Dunghil. 1765 H. Walpole Let. 9 Mar. (1937) I. 91 But goodnight; you see how one gossips, when one is alone and at quiet on one's own dunghill! 1879 J. A. Froude Cæsar xv. 233 What he [sc. Cicero] could not say in the Forum he thought he might venture on with impunity in the Senate, which might be called his own dunghill. 1912 H. Lea Day of Saxon i. 2 When men abandon with reluctance their own dunghills for the glories of their God.., how fragile are their racial bonds! 2005 Newcastle (Austral.) Herald (Nexis) 19 May 38 There's no disgrace in losing to Dudley at Dudley they're always hard to beat on their own dunghill. P2. In various proverbial and allusive phrases. ΚΠ c1410 (c1390) G. Chaucer Parson's Tale (Harl. 7334) (1885) §911 Holy writ may not be defouled no more þan þe sonne þat schyneth on a dongehul [c1405 Ellesmere Mixne]. 1579 T. Pritchard Schoole Honest & Vertuous Lyfe 34 Esopes Cocke, who in the Dounghill found a precious Pearle..knew not the precious vse, and vallure thereof. 1609 J. Melton Sixe-folde Politician iii. 35 According to the prouerbe: the smel of Garlicke takes away the stink of dung hils. 1650 Man in Moon No. 51. 387 He that sits on a dunghill to day, may to morrow sit on a Throne. 1762 G. Green Nice Lady iv. 62 The Man that sows seeds in a Dunghill, has hard luck if he can't gather Pumpkins. 1784 L. MacNally Robin Hood i. 8 A diamond may be concealed in a dunghill. 1868 H. B. Hackett tr. J. J. Van Oosterzee Epist. Paul to Philemon (Phil. iv. 22–5) 28/1 in P. Schaff et al. tr. J. P. Lange et al. Comm. Holy Script.: N.T. VIII The diamond retains its lustre, though it lie on a dunghill. 2003 P. Ackroyd Clerkenwell Tales (2005) 33 ‘The sun,’ he said, ‘is none the worse for shining on a dunghill. So may it shine on me.’ †P3. cock of the dunghill and variants: the chief, most dominant, or pre-eminent person in a place, situation, etc.; esp. (depreciative) a person who overvalues having pre-eminent status in a context viewed as inconsequential or unappealing. Also in extended use of a thing. Cf. cock n.¹ 13. Obsolete. ΚΠ a1586 Sir P. Sidney Apol. Poetrie (1595) sig. F2^v Alexander and Darius, when they straue who should be Cocke of thys worlds dunghill. 1678 V. Alsop Melius Inquirendum i. ii. 102 One needless Opinion is made Cock of the Dung-hill, and Crows over all the rest its equals, and may be its betters. 1787 C. Dibdin Harvest-home ii. 22 I'd have you to know, I am cock of the dunghill, and no one shall approach my partlet. 1858 A. Trollope Three Clerks III. xi. 194 Mr. Chaffanbrass was the cock of this dunghill. 1897 A. Marchmont By Right of Sword iii. 26 There was a beast of a sergeant—a strong fellow in his way who had been cock of the dunghill until I came. P4. to die dunghill: (esp. of a condemned criminal) to die in a cowardly way; to show fear or repentance when meeting one's death. Contrasted with to die game at game adj.¹ Phrases 1. Cf. Compounds 1b. Now historical. ΚΠ 1756 W. Toldervy Hist. Two Orphans IV. 52 Submit, be a wretch, and die dunghill. 1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue at Dunghill To die dunghill, to repent or shew any signs of contrition at the gallows. 1845 D. Jerrold Hist. St. Giles & St. James x. 55/1 It would be his ambition..to die game. He had heard..the contemptuous jeering flung upon the repentant craven—..he would not be laughed, sneered at, for ‘dying dunghill.’ 1856 Sat. Rev. 20 Dec. 746/1 He neither resisted like Bousfield, nor swaggered like Thistlewood, nor ‘died dunghill’ like a poor wretch a year or two ago. 1999 Birmingham Post (Nexis) 31 July 60 The victims of the law.., dying ‘dunghill’ or ‘game’ at the end of a rope. Compounds C1. attributive. a. Designating an animal or breed of a common, ordinary, domestic kind, such as might be found in the vicinity of a farmyard or household dunghill, as distinguished from an animal of an improved breed, a thoroughbred, etc. Now rare (archaic in later use).For specific uses relating to chickens, see Compounds 1b. ΚΠ c1450 MS Coll. Arms f. 1, in Middle Eng. Dict. at Mastif There beth grehowndys.., mene Mastewys,..spaynelle[s]..and terrourys, bocher hondis and dongehylle curres, and smale poupes ffor lady chambers. a1475 (?a1410) J. Lydgate Churl & Bird (Longleat) in E. P. Hammond Eng. Verse between Chaucer & Surrey (1927) 110 All oon to the a facoun & a kite As good an owle as a Popyngay A dongel [c1475 Harl. downghille, a1500 Lansd. donghyl] doke as deynte as a snyte. 1575 G. Gascoigne Noble Arte Venerie lxxii. 198 Euerie widowes flocke: a capon or a chicke, A pyg, a goose, a dunghill ducke, or ought that salt will licke. 1602 2nd Pt. Returne from Pernassus (Arb.) ii. v. 30 Dunghill dogges, trindle tailes, prick-eard curres. 1706 C. Cibber Perolla & Izadora ii. 24 Supine and speechless as a Dunghill Dog! 1805 J. Adams Anal. Horsemanship (new ed.) III. App. 253 No dealer would ensure to you, what he could never ensure to himself, that the horse shall turn out all you wish or require him to be;..he may be a dunghill horse. 1895 Rep. Agric. Province New Brunswick 1894 100 In cattle, we have Shorthorns, Jerseys, Durhams, Ayrshires and a few Holsteins. all of which.., when properly fed, easily display their superiority over the dunghill breeds. 1912 J. E. Ford Fact, Fun, & Fiction for Auctioneers vii. 284 If a man tells you that an old, dunghill cow, and hazel splitter hogs, are just as good for pork and beef as any, stand up and look yourself over at a distance before you swallow it all. 1955 N. C. Wilson Freedom Song 260 Oh, Mater, Mater, now I am mounted on a shabby dunghill horse taken from one of my troopers. b. Designating an ordinary, common, domestic cock or hen, as distinguished from game birds bred for fighting or (later) any improved breed, as dunghill cock, dunghill fowl, dunghill hen, etc.; designating a breed of such fowl. Hence (Cockfighting): designating any bird lacking in characteristics or qualities regarded as desirable in a game bird, esp. aggressiveness.See also dunghill craven n. at Compounds 2. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > hen or cock > [noun] > cock cockeOE chanticleer?a1300 common astrologera1413 dunghill cock1561 red cock1591 cock-a-doodle-doo1604 roost-cock1606 alectryon1664 stag1730 rooster1772 doodle-doo1785 cock bird1788 the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > hen or cock > [noun] > hen henOE Partletc1390 margery-prater1567 dunghill hen1611 the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > genus Gallus (domestic fowl) > [noun] > member of (fowl) chickenOE chicka1398 fowla1586 biddya1616 chuck1615 pull-fowla1688 chucky1724 dunghill1753 dunghill fowl1796 jungle-fowl1824 chook1888 gump1914 1561 B. Googe tr. ‘M. Palingenius’ Zodiake of Life (new ed.) vi. sig. S.iii But yet it forceth not if that the donghil cocke do gesse A precious stone as nothing worth. 1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Vne poule de pailler, a dunghill henne, a henne thats fed at the barne doore. 1646 T. Swadlin Jesuite i. 31 You have driven me, not like a right bred Cock of the game, but like a ranck bastard or dunghill Bird out of the Pit. 1727 R. Bradley Country Housewife & Lady's Director 17 The sorts of the House Pullen, or common Poultry, are many; but..I shall only take notice of such as are of the large Dunghill kind, or..the Game kind, and of the small Dutch kind. 1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth V. 163 The game-cock being by no means so fruitful as the ungenerous dunghill-cock. 1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) I. 112 A few dung-hill fowls were also found on these islands. 1822 W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II. iii. 59 There goes a dunghill chicken, that your master has plucked clean enough; it will be long ere his lordship ruffle a feather with a cock of the game. 1891 Florida Agriculturist 30 Dec. 727/1 A cross for three years on a fine dunghill breed will give a strain seven eighths pure. 1936 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 25 Feb. 12/7 It takes the same to feed a ‘dungle’ hen laying eggs 14 to the lb. as a Rhode Island or other improved breed. 1953 Hattiesburg (Mississippi) Amer. 7 Jan. 6/3 All non-fighting chickens are known in the cocker's language as dunghill chickens. 2017 www.sabong.net.ph 21 Apr. (forum post, accessed 23 Apr. 2018) There are many differences between a domestic type egg chicken and a gamefowl.... To breed a game cock to a dunghill hen is just foolishness. C2. dunghill beetle n. = dung beetle n. at dung n.¹ Compounds 2. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Coleoptera or beetles and weevils > [noun] > Polyphaga (omnivorous) > superfamily Lamellicornia Scarabaeoidea > family Scarabaeidae > member of (dung-beetle) sharnbudc1000 dora1450 clock1568 sharn-bug1608 dung beetle1634 grey fly1638 dunghill beetle1658 comb-chafer1712 tumble-turd1754 tumble-dung1775 dung-chafer1805 tumble-bug1805 tumbler1807 bull-comber1813 straddle-bug1839 lamellicorn1842 scarabaeidan1842 shard-beetle1854 watchman1864 scarabaeoid1887 scarabaeid1891 minotaur1918 1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 1009 Some call the Pilularius the dunghill Beetle, because it breeds from dung and filth. 1868 M. R. Barnard tr. C. W. Paijkull Summer in Iceland 356/1 Scarabæus fimetarius. Dunghill beetle. 1966 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 27 Feb. 3/1 The bulldozers were bumbling along like dunghill beetles, pushing the sand away. 2005 Manch. Evening News (Nexis) 26 Aug. 33 As a child, she was told never to leave food and was often reminded how Joe had to eat dunghill beetles in the war. † dunghill craven n. Obsolete a common domestic fowl, as distinguished from a gamecock bred for fighting (cf. Compounds 1b); (in extended use) a contemptible or cowardly person or thing.Recorded earliest in extended use. ΚΠ 1587 W. Lightfoot Complaint Eng. sig. F3 The Emperor seeing himselfe so disdainefully ouercrowed by a dunghill crauen [sc. the Pope], could not suppresse his heroicall stomacke. 1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks III. Misc. iv. ii. 218 The difference..between the Game-Cock, and the Dunghil-Craven. 1819 A. Balfour Campbell II. xxiv. 124 Next appears an ill-matched pair—a bird of game and a dunghill craven. 1908 Salt Lake Tribune 21 Feb. 4/4 It [sc. a newspaper] is..a dunghill craven whose pretended courage is not sufficient to ooze out a turn-tail ‘Boo!’ to a flying goose. dunghill raker n. now historical and rare a person who rakes through or rakes up refuse, esp. in search of things which may be reused, sold, or recycled (often used as a type of the lowest social or economic class); in early use also as a term of abuse or contempt. ΚΠ 1591 J. Hester tr. J. Du Chesne Breefe Aunswere Expos. I. Aubertus f. 56^v Some donghill raker, that is altogether vnskilfull in phisicke. 1640 J. D. Knave in Graine iii. sig. H Why Drawer, Dog, Dunghill-raker. 1659 G. Swinnock Ὀυρανος και Ταρταρος 160 A King will sooner admit dunghill-rakers and privy-cleaners..into his bed, then God will take thee..into heaven. 1694 T. D'Urfey Comical Hist. Don Quixote: Pt. 2nd v. i. 52 Why how now ye Dunghill-raker, ye old rusty Pruning-knife, ye Maggot in a Pescod, ye Catterpiller. 1853 J. Mills Brit. Jews iii. ii. 266 The man..can speak no fewer than five languages... By profession he, nevertheless, is but a bone-gatherer, and dunghill raker. 1995 D. B. J. Randall Winter Fruit iv. 62 The Gossips Braule..(1655)..is a tongue combat between Jone, Doll, Meg, and Bess (a dunghill raker, a fishwife, a washerwoman, and a hostess). Derivatives † ˈdunghillry n. (in form donghillrie) Obsolete base or despicable condition or behaviour.Apparently an isolated use. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > ignobleness or baseness > [noun] villainyc1386 simplessea1393 littlenessa1400 unnoblenessc1400 unnobilitya1425 unnobletya1425 ignoblenessc1450 ignobility?a1475 vileness1549 vilityc1550 haskardy?1578 dunghillry1581 indignity1589 beggarya1616 ignoblesse?1616 poorness1625 lowness1652 meanness1660 society > morality > moral evil > evil nature or character > lack of magnanimity or noble-mindedness > [noun] > baseness or moral vileness vilety?c1225 villainy?c1225 vilehead1340 caitiftya1400 vilitya1425 ignoblenessc1450 ignobility?a1475 vileness1526 baseness1537 dunghillry1581 base-mindedness1582 vildness1597 beggarya1616 lowness1652 villainya1719 caddishness1868 bounderishness1899 1581 R. Mulcaster Positions xxxix. 207 Where I see nobilitie betraid to donghillrie, and learning to doultrie. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022). † dunghillv. Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: dunghill n. Etymology: < dunghill n. Compare earlier dunghilled adj. 2 and muckhill v. Obsolete. rare. transitive. To gather (dung or refuse) up into a dunghill.In quot. 1860 figurative. ΚΠ 1860 All Year Round 3 Mar. 438/2 Where all the lees of Stamboul were dunghilled up into one reeking mass of infamy. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2019). < n.adj.c1330v.1860
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dunghilln.adj.

Phrases

Compounds

Derivatives

† dunghillv.