manure
Americannoun
-
excrement, especially of animals, or other refuse used as fertilizer.
-
any natural or artificial substance for fertilizing the soil.
verb (used with object)
-
manures,
present (3rd person singular)
-
manured,
past participle, past
-
manuring
present participle
noun
-
animal excreta, usually with straw, used to fertilize land
-
any material, esp chemical fertilizer, used to fertilize land
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
manuresimple
-
manuressimple
-
have manuredperfect
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has manuredperfect
-
am manuringprogressive
-
are manuringprogressive
-
is manuringprogressive
-
have been manuringperfect progressive
-
has been manuringperfect progressive
Past
-
manuredsimple
-
had manuredperfect
-
was manuringprogressive
-
were manuringprogressive
-
had been manuringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of manure
1350–1400; Middle English manouren to till, cultivate < Middle French manouvrer to do manual work. See maneuver
Explanation
Gardeners use the word manure to mean a fertilizer made from animal waste. Manure is good for helping plants grow and stay healthy. When you spread manure on your vegetable garden, you're feeding the soil and plants with nutrients that encourage growth. The manure itself might be, for example, a combination of cow dung and straw, or slightly decomposed chicken waste. Sometimes the word manure is used for any kind of fertilizer, including those made entirely from plants. The earliest meaning of manure was "to cultivate land," from an Old French root word, manouvrer, "to work with the hands or cultivate."
Vocabulary lists containing manure
Unit 3: Compelling Evidence
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Charlotte's Web
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Because of Mr. Terupt
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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.
See Examples For:
They argued the cows had degraded the seashore with manure pollution and soil erosion, harming the native wildlife.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
Some POWs said there were still traces of manure.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
Though the sequels became progressively worse, each one has a handful of great situational gags — diamonds sparkling through manure recalling the finest, silliest bits in classic spoof films from the late 20th century.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026
He uses mostly poultry litter, an organic fertilizer comprised of bird manure, feathers, bedding material and spilled feed, and he buys a lot of it — 3,125 tons each year.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 2, 2026
Even the manure smell is okay with me, because it’s unlike anything I’ve experienced before—different than the smell of Bellmont’s sewer system.
From "Boy21" by Matthew Quick
This includes more efficient use of manures and extracting nutrients from sewage, and using more legume crops in rotations to take advantage of the fact that they enhance nutrients in the soil.
From Salon ● Jan. 11, 2023
Payments for using greener manures and other more environmentally friendly farming practices will form part of a new government scheme.
From BBC ● Mar. 29, 2022
The company also sells bulk-aged and screened manures, organic fertilizers and custom soil mixes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2020
Over decades, both chemical fertilizers and chicken manure and other manures have been applied to the berry crops to provide extra nitrogen to help maximize berry growth.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Later there would also be need for seeds and artificial manures, besides various tools and, finally, the machinery for the windmill.
From "Animal Farm: A Fairy Story" by George Orwell
At Heligan, the soil was manured, aerated, and assiduously double dug for centuries; plants must have been queuing at the gates.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 2, 2019
Within two days, both the chicken culture and a similar culture from heavily manured soil produced the same antibiotic.
From Time Magazine Archive
We Yahoos who pledged our manured acres and sacred honor for loans to the Yazoos are paying to the last acre, the last cow, the last pig.
From Time Magazine Archive
Every boulevard shrub had been freshly manured to make the capital a little greener for its first visit, this week, from a U.S.
From Time Magazine Archive
Moreover, when the border is manured and partly dug in the autumn, it is difficult to avoid digging up the bulbs just when they are in full root-growth.
From Wood and Garden Notes and thoughts, practical and critical, of a working amateur by Gertrude Jekyll
The difference may be due to monks manuring crops in friary gardens with their own faeces, the study suggests.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2022
Less is known about the manuring practices of lower classes in the town.
From Science Magazine ● Aug. 18, 2022
When traditional methods became too unprofitable to protect their independence, farmers began manuring their fields and clearing wood lots to boost productivity.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
The great importance of manuring with ashes has been long recognized by agriculturists as the result of experience.
From The American Reformed Cattle Doctor by George Dadd
The necessity for manuring becomes more important in the case of bulbous plants that are to be left in the same soil for several years.
From Beautiful Bulbous Plants For the Open Air by John Weathers
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.
