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Dirt

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.

(Science: medicine) dirt bed same as chthonophagia. Dirt pie, clay or mud molded by children in imitation of pastry. To eat dirt, to submit in a meanly humble manner to insults; to eat humble pie.

Origin: oe. Drit; kin to Icel. Drit excrement, drita to dung, od. Drijten to dung, as. Gedritan.