midden

[ mid-n ]

noun

1. a dunghill or refuse heap.
2. kitchen midden.

midden

/ ˈmɪdən /

noun

1. 1. a dunghill or pile of refuse
   2. a dustbin
   3. an earth closet
2. See kitchen midden
   See kitchen midden

Word History and Origins

Origin of midden¹

1300–50; Middle English midding < Old Danish mykdyngja, equivalent to myk manure + dyngja pile ( Danish mødding )

Word History and Origins

Origin of midden¹

C14: from Scandinavian; compare Danish mödding from mög muck + dynge pile

Example Sentences

This can lead to the description of new species, as happened with Ptinus priminidi, a never-before-seen spider beetle plucked out of a midden in modern-day Arizona in 1976.

From Popular-Science

As successive generations of packrats add layer after layer to a midden, they slowly build boulder-sized masses in caves, cliff faces, and other nooks and crannies that can persist for millennia.

From Popular-Science

This dissolves the amberat that holds the midden matrix together.

From Popular-Science

Over the years, he’s handled hundreds of middens—and smelled them, too.

From Popular-Science

Of course, to render a midden scientifically valuable, you need more than a sensitive nose.

From Popular-Science

He'll shoot higher that shoots at the moon, than he that shoots at the midden, e'en though he may miss his mark.

From Project Gutenberg

Sir Banas, he comes in the night and makes them all alive at the back of our kitchen-midden,' piped the child.

From Project Gutenberg

Possibly the party kept too far inland to see the shell midden sites along the Bay shore.

From Project Gutenberg

"Saft beddin's gude for sair banes," quo' Howie when he streekit himsel on the midden-head.

From Project Gutenberg

Whether they be remnants of an elevated sea-beach, or of some Indian ‘kitchen-midden,’ I dare not decide.

From Project Gutenberg