Dirt (?), n. [OE. drit; kin to Icel. drit excrement, drita to dung, OD. drijten to dung, AS. gedritan.]
1.
Any foul of filthy substance, as excrement, mud, dust, etc.; whatever, adhering to anything, renders it foul or unclean; earth; as, a wagonload of dirt.
Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
Is. lvii. 20.
2.
Meanness; sordidness.
Honors . . . thrown away upon dirt and infamy.
Melmoth.
3.
In placer mining, earth, gravel, etc., before washing.
Dirt bed Geom., a layer of clayey earth forming a stratum in a geological formation. Dirt beds are common among the coal measures. -- Dirt eating. (a) The use of certain kinds of clay for food, existing among some tribes of Indians; geophagism. Humboldt. (b) Med. Same as Chthonophagia. -- Dirt pie, clay or mud molded by children in imitation of pastry. Otway (1684). -- To eat dirt, to submit in a meanly humble manner to insults; to eat humble pie.
© Webster 1913.
Dirt, v. t.
To make foul of filthy; to dirty.
Swift.
© Webster 1913.