midden
Americannoun
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archaic a dunghill or pile of refuse
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dialect a dustbin
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dialect an earth closet
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See kitchen midden
Etymology
Origin of midden
1300–50; Middle English midding < Old Danish mykdyngja, equivalent to myk manure + dyngja pile ( Danish mødding )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
At the next picnic table over, a little girl tipped an oyster back then dropped it on the ground—one more shell for the modern midden.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026
Or take a sea kayak tour from Ganges out to Third Sister Island, where you’ll see a large Indigenous shell midden at Chocolate Beach.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 3, 2023
Wearing my lovely new walking boots, I suddenly realise I have stumbled on a "midden" - a pungent pile of rhinoceros poo.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2022
One theory archaeologists are knocking about is the trove or artifacts might have been a midden or pit where detritus was tossed.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 27, 2019
As she fell asleep, she was sure the smell of the midden had gotten into her pores; that there was not enough water in the camp—in all of Poland—to wash her clean.
From "The Devil's Arithmetic" by Jane Yolen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
