dirt S3 / dɜt $ dɜrt / 名词 [不可数名词]

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 )

COLLOCATIONS

动词

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.

形容词

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.

短语

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.

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.