dung
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈdʌŋ/
- Rhymes: -ʌŋ
Audio (UK) (file)
Etymology 1
From Middle English dung, dunge, donge, from Old English dung (“dung; excrement; manure”), from Proto-Germanic *dungō (“dung”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰengʰ- (“to cover”).
Noun
dung (countable and uncountable, plural dungs)
- (uncountable) Manure; animal excrement.
- c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], line 129:
- Poor Tom, that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the todpole, the wall-newt, and the water; that in the fury of his heart, when the foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool […]
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Malachi 2:3:
- Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.
- 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 496:
- The labourer at the dung cart is paid at 3d. or 4d. a day; and on one estate, Lullington, scattering dung is paid a 5d. the hundred heaps.
- (countable) A type of manure, as from a particular species or type of animal.
Derived terms
Translations
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Verb
dung (third-person singular simple present dungs, present participle dunging, simple past and past participle dunged)
- (transitive) To fertilize with dung.
- 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Cock and the Fox: Or, The Tale of the Nun’s Priest, from Chaucer”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
- a cart he found, That carry'd compost forth to dung the ground
- 1993, Henry Leach, Endure No Makeshifts: Some Naval Recollections:
- She had been dunging the roses and was fairly covered in muck.
- (transitive, calico printing) To immerse or steep, as calico, in a bath of hot water containing cow dung, done to remove the superfluous mordant.
- (intransitive) To release dung: to defecate.
- 1669, John Baptiſta Porta, chapter V, in Natural Magick, The Third Book Of Natural Magick: […] , page 68:
- […] for hungry birds have devoured ſeeds, and having moiſtened and warmed them in their bellies, a little after have dunged in the forky twiſtes of Trees, and together with their dung excluded the ſeed whole which erſt they had ſwallowed: and ſometimes it brings forth there where they dung it, […]
Synonyms
- (to shit): See Thesaurus:defecate
Translations
Etymology 2
See ding
Etymology 3
unknown
Verb
dung (third-person singular simple present dungs, present participle dunging, simple past and past participle dunged)
- (colloquial) To discard (especially rubbish); to chuck out.
Etymology 4
Onomatopeia
Anagrams
Middle English
Old English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /dunɡ/, [duŋɡ]
Etymology 1
From Proto-West Germanic *dung (“cellar”).
Alternative forms
Declension
Synonyms
- dimhūs
Descendants
Etymology 2
From Proto-Germanic *dungō, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰengʰ- (“to cover”).
Alternative forms
Declension
Old Saxon
Etymology
From Proto-West Germanic *dung (“cellar”).
Vietnamese
Alternative forms
- (Northern Vietnam) dong
Etymology
Sino-Vietnamese word from 容 (“to tolerate; facial traits”). Also from Chinese 婦容/妇容 (phụ dung, “wifely look”).
Pronunciation
Verb
dung
- (archaic or literary) to tolerate
- trời không dung, đất không tha
- the sky doesn't tolerate it, the earth doesn't forgive it