dirt S3 /dɜːt $ dɜːrt/ BrE AmE 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 ↑ dish 2 , ⇨ hit/strike paydirt at ↑ paydirt , ⇨ hit the dirt at ↑ hit 1 (17), ⇨ treat somebody like dirt at ↑ treat 1 (1)
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COLLOCATIONS
■ verbs
▪ 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.
■ adjectives
▪ 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.
■ phrases
▪ 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.
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THESAURUS
▪ 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.