dirt
[noun]
Synonyms:
- filth, dust, grime, impurity, muck, mud
- soil, clay, earth, loam
- obscenity, indecency, pornography, sleaze, smut

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English Thesaurus: soil, earth, dirt, dust, mud, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

dirt S3 /dɜːt $ dɜːrt/ noun [uncountable]
[Date: 1200-1300; Language: Old Norse; Origin: drit]

1. any substance that makes things dirty, such as mud or dust:
You should have seen the dirt on that car!
His face and hands were black with dirt.
a patch of grass, covered in dog dirt (=waste from a dog’s bowels)

2. especially American English earth or soil:
Michael threw his handful of dirt onto the coffin.
in (the) dirt
The children had been sitting in the dirt.

3. informal information about someone’s private life or activities which could give people a bad opinion of them if it became known:
The newspapers had been digging up dirt on the President.

4. talk, writing, a film etc that is considered bad or immoral because it is about sex
⇒ dish the dirt at dish², ⇒ hit/strike paydirt at paydirt, ⇒ hit the dirt at hit¹(17), ⇒ treat somebody like dirt at treat¹(1)

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

dirt
noun
I. dust/soil/mud
ADJ. loose She brushed the loose dirt off her coat.
ingrained | dog
QUANT. speck | streak He had streaks of dirt all over his face.
layer
VERB + DIRT be covered in/with His shoes were covered in dirt.
brush off, clean off, remove, wash off | show The white rug really shows the dirt.
DIRT + VERB accumulate Dirt had accumulated in the corners of the windows.
DIRT + NOUN road, track | floor
PREP. in the ~ children playing in the dirt

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

dirt
II. harmful/unpleasant information about sb
VERB + DIRT have
PREP. ~ on Do you have any dirt on the new guy?
PHRASES dish the dirt (= tell people unkind/unpleasant things about sb) She just loves to dish the dirt.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

dirt

remove the dirt (from something)
First, remove any dirt from the cut.
brush off/wash off/clean off the dirt
Wash the dirt off those boots before you come in.
something shows the dirt (=something looks dirty – used about colours)
Light-coloured clothes show the dirt rather quickly.
loose dirt (=that you can brush off easily)
Keep your pack clean by brushing off any loose dirt after use.
ingrained dirt (=under the surface of something and difficult to clean off)
We had to wash the walls to remove the ingrained dirt.
ground-in dirt (=difficult to remove because people have walked over something )
He had a lot of trouble getting rid of the ground-in dirt from the carpet.
be covered with dirt
The kitchen floor was covered with dirt.
be black with dirt (=be very dirty)
Jack came in from the garden, his hands black with dirt.
a speck of dirt (=a very small piece of dirt)
Their house was so clean – there wasn’t a speck of dirt anywhere.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

soil the top layer of the earth that plants grow in:
Roses do best in well-drained, slightly acid soil.
earth the brown substance that the ground is made up of:
Thousands of tons of earth were moved to build the dam.
dirt American English loose dry earth:
a pile of loose dirt in the wheelbarrow
dust a dry powder made up of extremely small bits of earth or sand:
A cloud of dust billowed out behind the tractor.
mud wet soil that has become soft and sticky:
The dog came back covered in mud.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

dirt
də:t
See: eat dirt , hit the dirt , pay dirt

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲