I. ˈdər]d.]ē, ˈdə̄], ˈdəi], ]t], ]i\ adjective
( -er/-est )
Etymology: dirt (I) + -y
1. : characterized by the presence of dirt or impurities:
a. : not clean or pure : soiled, defiled, or begrimed with dirt : overlaid or intermixed with dirt, impurities, or foreign matter
the stage roustabouts' dungarees were convincingly dirty
b. : likely to befoul, defile, or begrime with dirt
put them on the dirtiest job in the camp
specifically : that befouls the hold of a transport ship
a tanker carrying such dirty cargo as crude oil, diesel oil, or asphalt is not subjected to this high rate of corrosion
c. of work : consisting of drudgery that is tedious, disagreeable, and unrecognized or thankless and usually makes the course easy for someone else
she did, as always quietly, complacently, the dirty work while her sisters fussed over their wardrobes
d. : requiring onerous or repulsive action that is most sordid, least rewarded, and most risky of the assignments made by the principal in an undertaking
a male accomplice was sitting out there playing it safe, sending the girl in to do the dirty work — Erle Stanley Gardner
determined that the bourgeois liberals should not use them for the dirty work at the barricades and then shove them … aside — Stringfellow Barr
e. : contaminated with infecting organisms
dirty wounds
2. : characterized by unfairness, baseness, or evil : low , contemptible , hateful :
a. : repugnant to a sense of decency
a mob … may lynch a Negro … and apparently enjoy the dirty business — C.C.Furnas
b.
(1) : marked or characterized by dishonorable, unscrupulous, or treacherous dealing
her father was a kind of dirty dog … he married a rich woman and left this kid to get along as best she could — Susan Ertz
(2) : obtained through dishonest, corrupt, or inhumane dealing
refused to legally name the higher-ups who got the millions in dirty money — Mike Stern
c. : marked by moral corruption or by criminality
those who regard politics as a dirty business would do well to remember that war is a dirtier business — John Lodge
called wire tapping a dirty business — Newsweek
d. : given to or characterized by covert attempts to harass or disable opposing players in violation of the rules of the sport or game : unsportsmanlike
a dirty hockey player
overemphasis on winning is liable to produce dirty football
e. : violating ordinary standards of fair play in deadly combat
a teacher of jujitsu and dirty fighting to recruits
f. : highly regrettable, distressing, or grievous
it's a dirty shame you weren't given a fair chance
3.
a. : characterized by expressed or suggested obscenity or indecency : bawdy , smutty
anecdotes of a type that can be called earthy but not dirty — Sidney Lovett
Shakespeare was the dirtiest of English authors if you knew the vocabulary — D.W.Brogan
sniggering at dirty postcards — John Masters
b. : offensive and to be shunned or applied only with repugnance by reason of an implicit offensive idea
but discipline? Ah, that's a dirty word and used only to describe the old Prussian army — Time
for years in the entertainment business “documentary” has been a dirty word — Marya Mannes
4. : rough and murky on sea or land or in the air ; especially : stormy with squally winds and low visibility
it developed into a dirty night. Fog shut down, reducing visibility to zero, and an unusually heavy tide was running — C.C.Hanks
5.
a. of color or light : clouded , sullied : dullish , dingy : not clear and bright
he was not dirty white, as I had often found whales of the smaller size to be, but pure white — H.A.Chippendale
b. : characterized typically by a husky, rasping, or raw tonal quality — usually used of jazz or of the singing or playing of musical tones that are slightly off-key
6.
a. : conveying ill-natured resentment
the two girls give me a dirty look like it was my fault or something — Ring Lardner
this is not meant as a dirty crack at the American railroads — Richard Joseph
b. : expressive of contempt : intended to affront, humiliate, or insult : scurrilous , abusive
quick to strike back at being called a dirty name
some of the dirty epithets applied to immigrants from foreign countries
7. printing
a. of copy : difficult to follow because heavily emended or marked or poorly written
b. of typesetting or a proof : full of errors or heavily marked with corrections of errors — opposed to clean ; compare foul 8
c. of a type case : foul 13
8. of an atom bomb or hydrogen bomb : having considerable fallout
Synonyms:
filthy , foul , nasty , squalid : dirty is a general term applicable to anything sullied or defiled
the window so dirty you could hardly see the new houses opposite — George du Maurier
he was dirty and bloodstained and his clothes were bedaubed with mud and weeds as though he had been in the river — Dorothy Sayers
filthy intensifies the offensive suggestions of dirty
tenements — rickety wooden structures five or six stories high, dark, ill-ventilated, and filthy, breeders of disease and nurseries of vice — Allan Nevins & H.S.Commager
he was constantly drunk, filthy beyond all powers of decent expression … as disreputable an old wretch as was at that time to be found in New York — Leslie Stephen
foul , the strongest term in this group, suggests revolting loathsomeness
the stagnant water looked uninviting. Over its face lay a thick mantle of green slime, from which swelled curious bladder islands of floating fatty pink. The Arabs explained that the Turks had thrown dead camels into the pool to make the water foul — T.E.Lawrence
Van Gogh knew the paleotechnic city in its most complete gloom, the foul bedraggled gaslighted London of the seventies — Lewis Mumford
nasty may imply highly repugnant qualities, especially those repugnant to a fastidious person
the nasty stench of the place turned me sick; if ever a man smelled fever and dysentery, it was in that abominable anchorage — R.L.Stevenson
I wonder why he really did hide himself like that. Something nasty, I suppose; was he a leper? — G.K.Chesterton
would they, pray, explain why instead of sharing their beds with decent women of their own class … they squandered all their virile energy on greasy slave girls and nasty Asiatic-Greek prostitutes? — Robert Graves
squalid adds to dirty the suggestions of slovenliness or neglect
magnified hovels, piled story upon story, and squalid with the grime that successive ages have left behind them — Nathaniel Hawthorne
All these terms may describe things reprehensible morally
public office in this country has become a dirty and nasty thing. Its attainment in most cases implies chicanery and deceit — M.L.Ernst
I oughtn't to sell Max out like that. It would be utterly filthy — Dashiell Hammett
secret murder was their object — black, foul, midnight murder — Anthony Trollope
he has treated such malice with the stony contempt the utterances of squalid politicians and journalists deserve — New Republic
All these terms but squalid apply often to unpleasant weather.
II. adverb
( -er/-est )
: dirtily , basely
III. verb
( -ed/-ing/-es )
transitive verb
1. : to make filthy : soil
he dirtied his new clothes in the coal cellar
2.
a. : to stain with dishonor : sully , tarnish
but with Jackson the common man poured into the White House and dirtied more than the carpets … theft on a great scale appeared for the first time — Times Literary Supplement
b. : to debase or degrade by distorting the real nature of
their religion took most of the rural whites, pleasures away from them, dirtying sex and the human body until it was a nasty thing — Lillian Smith
intransitive verb
: to become soiled
soft cloths dirty easily
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- dirty one's hands