DIRTY

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

Irregular inflected forms: dirtied , dirtier , dirtiest

I. (adjective)

Comparative and superlative

Comparative: dirtier

Superlative: dirtiest

Sense 1

Meaning:

Unpleasantly stormy

Example:

there's dirty weather in the offing

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

stormy ((especially of weather) affected or characterized by storms or commotion)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Soiled or likely to soil with dirt or grime

Example:

Cinderella did the dirty work while her sisters preened themselves

Synonyms:

dirty; soiled; unclean

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

lousy (infested with lice)

maculate (spotted or blotched)

mucky; muddy (dirty and messy; covered with mud or muck)

ratty (dirty and infested with rats)

scummy (covered with scum)

smudgy (smeared with something that soils or stains; these words are often used in combination)

snot-nosed; snotty (dirty with nasal discharge)

sooty (covered with or as if with soot)

travel-soiled; travel-stained (soiled from travel)

uncleanly (habitually unclean)

unswept (not having been swept)

unwashed (not cleaned with or as if with soap and water)

Augean (extremely filthy from long neglect)

bedraggled; draggled (limp and soiled as if dragged in the mud)

befouled; fouled (made dirty or foul)

begrimed; dingy; grimy; grubby; grungy; raunchy (thickly covered with ingrained dirt or soot)

black; smutty (soiled with dirt or soot)

buggy (infested with bugs)

cobwebby (covered with cobwebs)

dirty-faced (having a dirty face)

feculent (foul with waste matter)

filthy; foul; nasty (disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with offensive matter)

flyblown; sordid; squalid (foul and run-down and repulsive)

greasy; oily (smeared or soiled with grease or oil)

Also:

untidy (not neat and tidy)

Attribute:

cleanness (the state of being clean; without dirt or other impurities)

Antonym:

clean (free from dirt or impurities; or having clean habits)

Derivation:

dirt (the state of being covered with unclean things)

dirtiness (the state of being unsanitary)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(of behavior or especially language) characterized by obscenity or indecency

Example:

has a dirty mouth

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

scatological (dealing pruriently with excrement and excretory functions)

scabrous (dealing with salacious or indecent material)

lewd; obscene; raunchy; salacious (suggestive of or tending to moral looseness)

foul-mouthed; foul-spoken (using foul or obscene language)

cruddy; filthy; foul; nasty; smutty (characterized by obscenity)

dirty-minded (having lewd thoughts)

blasphemous; blue; profane (characterized by profanity or cursing)

bawdy; off-color; ribald (humorously vulgar)

Also:

indecent (offensive to good taste especially in sexual matters)

Antonym:

clean ((of behavior or especially language) free from objectionable elements; fit for all observers)

Derivation:

dirtiness (obscenity in speech or writing)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Spreading pollution or contamination; especially radioactive contamination

Example:

a dirty bomb releases enormous amounts of long-lived radioactive fallout

Synonyms:

contaminating; dirty

Classified under:

Adjectives

Antonym:

clean (not spreading pollution or contamination; especially radioactive contamination)

Derivation:

dirt (the state of being covered with unclean things)

dirtiness (the state of containing dirty impurities)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Unethical or dishonest

Example:

shoddy business practices

Synonyms:

dirty; shoddy; sordid

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

corrupt (lacking in integrity)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Violating accepted standards or rules

Example:

fined for unsportsmanlike behavior

Synonyms:

cheating; dirty; foul; unsporting; unsportsmanlike

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

Meaning:

Contaminated with infecting organisms

Example:

obliged to go into infected rooms

Synonyms:

dirty; pestiferous

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

infected; septic (containing or resulting from disease-causing organisms)

Derivation:

dirtiness (the state of being unsanitary)

II. (verb)

Verb forms

Present simple: I / you / we / they dirty ... he / she / it dirties

Past simple: dirtied

Past participle: dirtied

-ing form: dirtying

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make soiled, filthy, or dirty

Example:

don't soil your clothes when you play outside!

Synonyms:

begrime; bemire; colly; dirty; grime; soil

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "dirty" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dirty"):

foul (make unclean)

contaminate; foul; pollute (make impure)

smear (stain by smearing or daubing with a dirty substance)

slime (cover or stain with slime)

muddy; muddy up (dirty with mud)

splash (soil or stain with a splashed liquid)

mire; muck; muck up; mud (soil with mud, muck, or mire)

crock (soil with or as with crock)

blemish; spot (mar or impair with a flaw)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Antonym:

clean (make clean by removing dirt, filth, or unwanted substances from)

Derivation:

dirtying (the act of soiling something)

Credits

Context examples:

"It is a beautiful country," he replied; "but these bottoms must be dirty in winter."

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

With no greater events than these in the Longbourn family, and otherwise diversified by little beyond the walks to Meryton, sometimes dirty and sometimes cold, did January and February pass away.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Yet slightly dirty water such as that which has been used for laundry is still effective when combined with soap, handwashing specialist Myriam Sidibe, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, told.

(Slightly dirty water ‘still ok’ against coronavirus, SciDev.Net)

If they can get up to it and fire in upon us through our own ports, things would begin to look dirty.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The table was piled with half-eaten dishes and dirty plates, the débris of last night’s dinner.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

With such thoughts as these, among ten hundred others, Fanny proceeded in her journey safely and cheerfully, and as expeditiously as could rationally be hoped in the dirty month of February.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Although Cerealia Facula is the brightest area on all of Ceres, it would resemble dirty snow to the human eye.

(Bright Areas on Ceres Suggest Geologic Activity, NASA)

But I suppose they thought it would be too dirty for a walk.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The heat from the Sun causes some of the dirty snow to vaporize, creating the fuzzy halo or "coma" of water vapor, dust and ice grains seen in comet images.

(Comet Provides New Clues to Origins of Earth's Oceans, NASA)

By my hilt! your jerkins will be as dirty as mine ere you clap eyes on Hengistbury Head again.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

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