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Synonyms

down-and-dirty

American  
[doun-uhn-dur-tee] / ˈdaʊn ənˈdɜr ti /

adjective

Informal.

  1. unscrupulous; nasty.

    a down-and-dirty election campaign.

  2. earthy; funky.

down and dirty British  

adjective

  1. ruthlessly competitive or underhand

    if Bush gets down and dirty the Governor will give as good as he gets

  2. uninhibited; frank

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
down and dirty Idioms  

  1. Vicious, not governed by rules of decency, as in The candidates are getting down and dirty early in the campaign . [ Slang ; early 1980s]

  2. Very earthy, uninhibitedly sexual. For example, “L.A. club people rarely get down and dirty on a dance floor” ( The New Yorker , May 21, 1990). [Late 1980s]

Etymology

Origin of down-and-dirty

First recorded in 1985–90

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.