soil1
/sɔɪl
/- Bacteria and insects break down organic material to produce soil and nutrients so plants can grow.
- This drainage system is made up of a lower layer of rough, nonporous material and an upper layer of porous soil and sand.
- Instead, farmers rely on developing a healthy, fertile soil and growing a mixture of crops.
Synonyms
- England had not tasted defeat in the Five / Six nations championship on home soil since 1997.
- RAF Elvington became quite literally a French enclave, a foreign territory on Yorkshire soil and the only one of its kind in Britain.
- Opposition politicians say the mission violates a constitutional clause which restricts foreign combat troops on sovereign soil.
Synonyms
Derivatives
soil-less
- A soil-less technique eliminates the heaviest part of a garden - namely, the soil - and is relatively easy to set up using store-bought basins or recycled materials.
- Hole recommends choosing a high quality potting soil, which is actually a soil-less mix, to keep things as simple as possible.
- The plants were grown in pots using a soil-less compost of peat and sand.
soily
Origin
Late Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French, perhaps representing Latin solium 'seat', by association with solum 'ground'.
You might think that soil meaning ‘earth’ and soil meaning ‘to make dirty’ are linked, but they are quite distinct words. When you use the noun to refer to ‘home soil’ or ‘foreign soil’ you are using the word in its original sense. It came from Old French and once referred to a land or country: ‘The man who with undaunted toils / Sails unknown seas, to unknown soils’ (John Gay, 1727). It could also refer to the ground, and later to the layer of earth that plants grow in. The verb soil, ‘to make dirty’, comes from Old French soiller, which was based on Latin sucula ‘a little pig’. Pigs are not as dirty as their reputation suggests, but there is presumably the idea of making a place into a pigsty behind the use of the English word.
Rhymes
soil2
/sɔɪl/- DNA tests can be soiled, fingerprints smudged, and so on.
- His orange suit was soiled by slimy machine oil, but he didn't mind the mess.
- In New Delhi, India, it is smog that hangs over the city, pollution that literally soils everything it touches and makes many people sick.
Synonyms
- The day I met him, his dirty t-shirt and soiled pants revealed that he was living on the streets.
- His face was dirty and streaked from tears and his pants were soiled.
- Despite being destined from the early stages to win at a canter, they spoiled and soiled their display with a series of other cynical acts.
- When you return the advances, they act as if you're soiled and spoiled.
- The opening scene is an interview - about the wretchedness of conditions in the theatre, poking fun at the cumbersome bureaucracy which soils it.
Synonyms
- Railways were built for access and for the removal of waste soil.
- Only when the specialists had cleared an area were general contractors allowed to dig deeper and take waste soil to Oldham.
Origin
Middle English (as a verb): from Old French soiller, based on Latin sucula, diminutive of sus 'pig'. The earliest use of the noun (late Middle English) was 'muddy wallow for wild boar'; current noun senses date from the early 16th century.
soil3
/sɔɪl/- But, wherever these vigorous plants can be grown successfully, it is easy to obtain from them large quantities of fodder, both for soiling cattle in summer and for making hay against the winter's need, and this at comparatively small cost for labor and manure.
Origin
Early 17th century: perhaps from soil2.