dung

[duhng]

noun

1. excrement, especially of animals; manure.

verb (used with object)

1. to manure (ground) with or as if with dung.

dung

/ dʌŋ /

noun

1. 1. excrement, esp of animals; manure

   2. ( as modifier )

      dung cart

2. something filthy

verb

1. (tr) to cover (ground) with manure

Other Word Forms

• dungy adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of dung¹

before 1000; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Low German, German dung; compare Icelandic dyngja heap, dung, Swedish dynga dung, muck, Old High German tunga manuring

Word History and Origins

Origin of dung¹

Old English: prison; related to Old High German tunc cellar roofed with dung, Old Norse dyngja manure heap

Example Sentences

Then she began coating herself with mud and grass, and probably a little cow dung.

Read more on Literature

My wife, an amateur mycologist, had been invited along with some friends to present their findings on the microscopic fungi that grow on the dung of herbivores like deer and rabbits.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Its drill sergeants are on Cam and the rest of his new platoon like flies on dung from the moment they wake until they go to sleep.

Read more on Salon

Recently, that helped them catch a suspected nighthawker hiding behind a pile of manure after his footprints on the fresh dung heap shone up on thermal imaging.

Read more on BBC

And when describing her underachieving brother’s shortcomings, she says, “He’s got the brains of a dung beetle and the ambitions of a French bureaucrat.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• droppings 
• feces 
• manure 
• poop